The Chairman of the Pakistani Senate’s Standing Committee on Defence Production, Khawaja Sohail Mansoor, reported that defence exports from Pakistan have grown to more than $98 million U.S. in fiscal year (FY) 2016-2017, a 55% increase from exports a decade ago in FY 2006-2007. In the past two fiscal years, Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) had booked export orders in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
POF, which is Pakistan’s principal small arms and ammunitions vendor, announced that it had secured sales worth $93.7 million in FY 2015-2016. Saudi Arabia was POF’s largest buyer. POF also signed a letter-of-understanding (LoU) with Italian ammunition maker Fiocchi to pursue the supply of POF brass to Fiocchi.
PAC inked orders for its Super Mushshak trainer from Nigeria, Qatar and Turkey in 2016 (for 8, 10 and 52 aircraft, respectively)
Main thrust for Export
Pakistan also in need to major increases in the sale of big-ticket equipment, most notably the JF-17 Thunder as well as complete systems manufactured by Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT) and Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works (KSEW).
Pakistan has struggled exporting the HIT al Khalid main battle tank (MBT) and maintaining sales momentum for HIT’s series of armoured personnel carriers (APC). However, the forthcoming al Khalid 2 MBT, which is envisaged to use a 1,500-hp diesel engine and exhibit noticeable improvements to its armour and electronics, could draw foreign interest.
Assembling and spare part dealing activities
Pakistan may also begin actively tying its future big-ticket purchases to commercial offsets, which would involve the likes of PAC, POF, HIT and KSEW to function as parts and services suppliers for foreign original equipment manufacturers in Turkey, Ukraine and other countries. Indications of this are visible in the activities surrounding Turkish Aerospace Industries’ (TAI) efforts to sell its T129 ATAK attack helicopter to the Pakistan Army, with TAI offering PAC parts manufacturing and potentially even assembly work.