Prasun K. Sengupta

Following the second annual China-Pakistan foreign ministers’ strategic dialogue at China’s Hainan Island on August 20-21, military cooperation-cum-coordination between the armed forces of both countries has been ramped up to an unprecedented level, principally in terms of force-mix accretions for Pakistan’s armed forces.

For the Pakistan Army (PA), whose main battle tank (MBT) inventory comprises 550 NORINCO-developed Type 90II/MBT-2000 Al Khalids; 320 Type 85IIAPs; 500 Type 59s upgraded to Al Zarrar standard; 380 Type 59s; 450 69IIAPs; and 320 T-80UDs, making for a total of 2,520 MBTs, will be beefed up through the service-induction of 360 NORINCO-developed VT-4/Type-2000 MBTs. An additional 110 Al Khalid-1 MBTs are now under licenced-assembly at the state-owned Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT) with NORINCO’s assistance at a rate of 22 MBTs per year. Also, the Type 85IIAPs will be upgraded at a rate of 90 every year. The PA operates two Mechanised Divisions—the 25 and 26—and two Armoured Divisions—the 1 and 6. Of these, the two Divisions tasked with staging limited tactical offensives are the 26 that is stationed at Bahawalpur in Southern Punjab, and the 6, located in Gujranwala.

JF-17A Block-3 L-MRCA

Series-produced by the Inner Mongolia First Machinery Group Co Ltd, a subsidiary of NORINCO, the VT-4/MBT-3000 was unveiled at the Eurosatory International Defence Exhibition in June 2012. In August 2012, NORINCO hosted diplomats, military officials and military-industrial contractors from 44 countries at its proving grounds in Baotau for a mobility-cum-firepower demonstration of the VT-4/MBT-3000. Two years later, at the China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition 2014 in Zhuhai, NORINCO showed for the first time a full-scale prototype. The PA conducted in-country mobility-cum-firepower trials of the VT-4 between June and December 2018 at its field firing ranges located at the Tilla Jogian Field Firing Range in Jhelum, northern Punjab, and at the Khudai Rang Field Firing Range in Muzaffargarh, central Punjab, following which in July 2019 a contract was inked with NORINCO for the procurement of up to 550 VT-4s and 50 W-753 ARRV