DEFENCE TECHNOLOGIES

An extremely interesting analysis by Wing Comd (Retd) MUHAMMAD IRSHAD of why indigenous production is vital to the country’s defence, both economically and logistically

Effective technology is a relative terminology, depending on the opponents capabilities and the time factor. In the year 1900, Henry Ford’s puffing machine moving at eight miles per hour was the latest thing. in 1907, American Army ordered for a flying machine which could fly at forty miles per hour. This was faster than any imaginable machine of the time. Today, we see vehicles returning from Moon and Mars at speeds faster than 100 times the speed of first army aircraft. Similarly in 1452, the cannon of Ottoman sultan which could throw a mortar of 1300 pounds for a mile or more was the latest thing, now we have ballistic missiles that can carry about a million times more power.

Therefore, for a modern and effective defence in this space age, recourse to science and technology is extremely necessary. Whether it is aircraft industry or ship-building; tanks or guns, rockets or missiles; radar or radio, the indigenous and superior application of technical know-how ensures greater and better defence capability. Today, the world is utilising compressed and compact engineering designs, solid state electronics, integrated circuits, silicon chips, laser beams, various sensors, electro-optics, computers of third and fourth generations, space satellites, rocketry, better and far lethal explosives, precision-guided missiles and so on for eliminating element of error, lack of accuracy; risk and uncertainty. Increased use of automation ensures an evenly high quality. While laser technology is impregnated with an amazingly lethal and delicate potential, computerisation brings speed and precision. Similarly whereas the possession of nuclear weapons serves as best deterrent, the space satellites provide far quicker and better surveillance and reconnaissance. Thus a nation on the road of self-sufficiency in weapons must be familiar with above and other related technologies.

Preparation of our own arms is not only a serious national requirement, but is religious duty also. In about 23 years of prophethood, our Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) fought about 83 different kinds of battles1, and was fully aware of the requirements of arming against enemy. Therefore, we have a large number Hadith, demanding us to strengthen our muscles, just to quote the translation of some:-

• Paradise is under the shadow of swords.
• The one who prepares the fighter is like a fighter himself.
• Safeguard in the way of Allah, for one day, is better than many treasurers.
• Three people shall enter paradise because of one arrow. The one who manufactures it, the one who supplies it to the fighter and the one who makes proper use of it.

Holy Quran also says, and I quote the translation:

• Fight them (unbelievers) till there is no persecution (8:40)
• Make ready for them whatever force and strings of horses you can, to terrify (8:60).

It does sound strange that in spite of such clear instructions, we have not given the kind of priority to preparations of arms, otherwise today we would not have been 95% dependent on foreign supplies. How the other nations feel its importance can be gauged from only the American example where all the Cadets of American Military Academy at West Point, every Sunday in the chapel sing loudly a song with words as follows:

Let duty be well performed,
Honour be e’er untarned,
Country be ever armed..2

This is to inculcate in the young brains the importance of arming their country. For nations with pride and dignity do not plan their war only with borrowed equipment. Let us see how Japanese felt when they wanted to climb up the ladder.

When Japan joined the world after more than two centuries of isolation, it found itself ignorant of much that had been learned and developed abroad. Led by the government and the enlightened leadership of emperor Meiji, Japan reached out for the technology partly in self defence. The western countries demanded that Japan open its doors, and unequal treatise were imposed on her, giving no protection to her economy and industry. A strong military, in combination with a strong industrial base, seemed to be the only way to survive as a member of a greedy, predatory international society. From the depths of agrarian isolation, Japan started industrialisation in the last third of the nineteenth century. By 1905, the industrial and economic might of the nation had been raised to such a level that tiny Japan, with a population of merely 30 million people, was able to defeat both China (1894-95) and Czarist Russia (1904-05). At the beginning of the World War 1 in Europe, Japan was a major military and industrial power in Asia.3

Not only Japan, many other countries, aspiring to live with dignity and honour followed the same path. Fortunately we do not have to start from where Japan started, we are already way ahead of that mark. Talking only of defence related industries, we have a reasonably solid base. Pakistan steel mills, Pakistan ordinance factories at Wah, Sanjuwal and Havelian, Heavy Industries at Taxila, 501 & 502 Army units, Pakistan Aeronautical complex with separate factories for Chinese aircraft, Mirage rebuild, Aircraft Manufacturing and Radar Rebuild, 102 PAF unit, Karachi shipyard, Naval Dockyard, Pakistan Machine Tools Factory, Heavy Mechanical Complex and Heavy Forge & Foundry at Taxila, PINSTECH, KANUPP, SUPARCO, Telephone and Electronic industry at Haripur etc. Steel industries and engineering units in the civilian sectors, our many engineering universities and polytechnic institutes combined together should have taken the country far ahead in self sufficiency. But unfortunately some vital link is missing. Apart from economic factors, the vision and brain required for effective utilisation on national and international scale does not seem to exist. Therefore, it is pathetic that even today defence forces are spending millions of precious foreign exchange on things like washers, nuts and bolts which can be manufactured in the backyard of a small industry. And Pakistan as a nation cannot manufacture a sewing needle or a complete bicycle without importing some components.

Today, about 95% of our defence equipment is purchased from foreign sources. Because of this known weakness, the foreign suppliers exploit us in a number of ways. The cases of American betrayal in 1965, when we were part of their alliances, and then withholding the F-16 money in a highway robbery style are well known. But there are many more. About a decade back, when Pakistan decided to co-produce a modern aircraft with Swedish collaboration, the Swedes agreed but the project was abandoned because the Americans refused to allow the co-production or supply of its American engines. Also, under a contract we are bound not to use any spare parts for foreign equipment except from source. An example. The American airforce is supplying us a type of screw (we need millions of them) at US 2.0 per piece, which they themselves get and repack at US $.5 per piece. The price of rubber tanks of French Mirage aircraft is more than the price of their equivalent weight of gold. (and we keep replacing them frequently). Australian airforce did a study on Mirage Aircraft spares and came up with a list of actual suppliers around world who could supply the spares at about one-fifth the price. When our government tried to talk this with the French, they threatened to completely cut-off supply channels. Thus, sale of military hardware has become a complicated industry and business.

In 1983, nearly two percent of total world trade was in weapons (worth US $ 35.1 billions) and these figures have by and large been increasing. It is a sad fact of global politics that most arm importers are to be found in the developing world. One might think they had better things to spend money on. By contrast the richer developed world merely accounted for 21% of total world arms imports, down from 29% in 1972. The Middle East has led the world in total imports since 1977. In 1983, it accounted for 58% of total arm imports. Israel during this period was having about 4.6% of total world arm imports.4 It is a strange paradox of political exploitation that America gives all its political and military strength to Israel, whose very existence and deeds are serious threat to the surrounding countries. These countries for their security spend a greater part of their wealth in purchase of arms from America. (This year only UAE will spend about US $10 billions on military purchases from America.)

Complete self reliance by any under-developed country is un-imaginable. The amount of time, money, dedication and perseverance required is beyond the resources available. Also in this age of undiminished technological explosion, even a very complicated weapon system which takes about a decade to develop is superseded by another within even lesser period. This staggering pace of technological development is causing an over-yawning chasm between the developed and the developing counties which the later are finding difficult to bridge. Some of the developing countries, however, have successfully tried to narrow down this gap through their systematic and perseverance effort coupled with far-sighted planning. India for instance, is making marked and rather alarming headway in indigenous defence production through her steady progress in technology. Pakistan, in comparison, is largely dependent on erratic, inadequate, unreliable and uneconomical sources of procurement.

Indian technological development can be gauged by the report of Press Trust of India (Dated June 7, 1998)5, according to which, Indian scientists are developing a multi-role space plane which can put small satellites into orbit and be used for intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance. The aerospace experts were working on Avatar, which is slightly bigger than a fighter jet. The report said that it would take off like a conventional air plane, and climb to cruise altitude, where a Scramjet engine will take over. After cruising at seven times the speed of sound, a rocket engine can send it to low-earth orbit. The plane could be used for 100 times and could also be employed to deploy small satellites for tele-communication links. Published report says that liquid oxygen needed for the terminal rocket flight will be produced during flight, thereby making ÔAvatar’ the only plane that employs the design principal of mass addition in flight. Other space planes carry liquid oxygen at take off. Project scientists say the plane would be capable of flying at a speed of 6000 kilometers an hour at a height of 30 kilometers. This technology which Indians are talking is supposed to be superior than any technology existing in the world today. It could be an Indian bluff, but if this is true, then it calls for emergency measures for us to move at a lightening speed with our own agenda and priorities.

This, in any case would not be Mission Impossible. Many countries of the world have achieved more difficult targets when they found it necessary for their survival or for demonstration of their superior national skills. Just to quote some example,

• In 1930, the (Russian) regime launched a major spending program in defence industry. Throughout most of that decade, the Soviets were producing 3,000 tanks a year ... They were also churning out 3,000 aircraft a year.6
• Estimates of Soviet aircraft production for 1960 range from an annual total of 5,000. Tank production during the early 1950s was estimated at 6,000.
• In 1944, the US produced 93,623 aircraft as opposed to 29,462 in the UK. Of the former, 14,861 were heavy bombers, compared to 5,507 in the UK.7 These countries were not only busy running their defence factories, but they were also educating their people in the art of industrialisation. Space does not allow a detailed discussion but I would like to quote only one example of Russian industrial flexibility.

• After the initial shock of German invasion, the Russians managed in six months to shift over 1,300 major factories and more than 10 million people to new industrial centres behind the Ural mountains, out of reach of the German Panzers. By the beginning of 1942, with factories that sometimes lacked roofs, and with workers living in tents, they were already producing four times as many tanks as a year before and 70 percent more aircraft. By the end of 1942, the Russians were producing, almost twice as many aircraft as Germany and more than four times as many tanks, a feat made possible by the breakneck industrialisation of the 1930s.8

Apart from huge conventional and nuclear arsenal, India today has about 3,740 tanks out of which 1,200 are indigenously built Vijayantas. Pakistan on the other hand has 2000 main battle tanks, all of them imported.9 One could argue about the quality of Indian tanks, but then technology is like human babies. You have to assist it to grow with a lot of margin of error before it can grow to be able to conquer the world. Obviously you have to be tolerant with their growth. America these days is considered a technological might, but when they started their Apollo programs, they came across a large amount of failures. After about eight consecutive massive failures, they succeeded in Apollo 10 onwards. Then in 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded killing all seven people on board. Same year, Russian nuclear power station at Chernobyl met a disaster which jeopardised their whole energy policy. Such mishaps are part of progress, what is important is the determination and above all, we have to define targets today if we want the results in the next decade or thereafter.

We have to survive with a combination of local manufacture and foreign procurements coupled with maximum possible transfer of technology. Technology transfer means benefiting from the achievement of others, and saving our time, effort and money. Indeed, the availability of a pool of scientific and technical know how, tested, tried and perfected in the advanced countries is seen as a distinct advantage. It gives us a big leap in technology besides solving out immediate requirements. But the process is not entirely encouraging because of high costs, long-term dependency of spares with fears of embargo, flight of capital out of our frontiers, and also the fact that adoption depends upon the availability of suitable engineering, manpower skills and competent suppliers which are generally insufficient. The market for technology is highly imperfect in the sense that the product being traded is not standardised, there is an absence of complete information about the relative merits of alternative technologies available, and there are substantial differences in the relative size and bargaining strength of buyers and sellers of knowledge.

The emergence of technologies is dependent upon brain-waves of individuals or universities, mostly working with government funding. But the growth of these technologies was linked with government providing funds in one way or the other. The fruits of defence related technologies soon filter for the benefit of common man. The development and miniaturisation of computers, the system of internet, laser surgery, nuclear power plants, use of satellites for communications and TV channels, and development of aviation are some examples where defence technologies ended up in the service of common man. The development of aviation is being discussed as an example of how patient one has to be before an invention can revolutionise the whole world.

When the Wright brothers wanted to test their very first aircraft, they decided to test it at the beaches of Kitty Hawk. Money was the only problem. They asked the bank for US $ 600, but got only US $500 for initial testing. (What if the bank had refused money ?). The successful flight of twelve seconds made them famous but after two days the aircraft was broken in the winds of kitty hawk. The real financial thrust in their life was when American president Teddy Roosevelt was given special discretionary fund and he decided to buy the US army one of those new flying machines. In 1907, the Army signal Corps opened the bidding for a flying machine specifying that it had to be easily assembled and disassembled in less than an hour and capable of carrying two persons 125 miles at forty per hour. Wilber and Orivlle Wright won the bid, promising to deliver a flying machine to army within 200 days for US $ 25,000, and in 1908, they began test flights of America’s first military airplane. It failed the test. On September 17, 1908, after two weeks of flawless flights, the wooden propeller cracked and Orivlle Wright broke his leg and many ribs. A year later, his broken bones healed and his plane rebuilt, Orivlle Wright successfully competed the flight tests, and army aviation had its first airplane. On the day of his crash, many had muttered that man after all has not been given wings. But such a chorus is to be heard every time the human race ventures past a technological frontier and encounters obstacles. It should be a reminder that while we meet many failures, the failure we should fear most is the failure of will.10

The Muslim history is full of many marvellous feats in the field of technology. What the Europeans call dark ages was a very bright era for Muslims. Sher Shah Suri ruled India only for five years (1540-1545). Within this period, he managed to construct 1500 miles long road with a water well and resting facilities after about every 20 kilometers. (Lahore-Islamabad motorway of about 300 miles length, with huge machinery took more than three years to complete). Before him, Sultan Muhammad Faateh’s some achievements still remain unrivalled in history. In his bid to conquer Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1453, he moved 80 out of 350 naval ship on 10 miles of dry land in one night alone. These 350 ship he had also got constructed along with the world’s biggest cannon of the time as part of his military preparations in a short period.

Since about 500 years, we have not heard of any glaring achievement by any Muslim country or individual. Our present generations are being made to believe that technological achievements are something to be done by Americans and Europeans alone. Muslims have no concern and choice, except to buy them at the offered price along with the quoted terms and conditions. With this background, Pakistan’s Nuclear blasts sponsored with the efforts of Pakistan Atomic Energy and Dr Abdul Qadeer’s Khan Research Laboratories and few other inventive and innovative centres like them are like oasis in the desert. Their work becomes much more appreciable when we understand that the country has an extremely narrow base of technology, and these centres have to work with many combinations of existing and imported technologies. It is because of works by these centres of excellence that Pakistan is in the front row of technology at least amongst the Muslims countries. It is a moment of joy not only for Pakistan but also for the whole of Muslims world.

God has blessed us with talented and dedicated people, with a boundless imagination. A grasp on state-of-the art technologies should put us on a road where we Pakistanis should feel proud of dignity and honour attached with the very name of our country products. It was imagination of Dr Iqbal that Muslim thought of a separate homeland, it was talent of Quaid-i-Azam that gave us the privileged land, it was the talent and imagination of Dr Qadeer Khan, Dr. Ashfaq Ahmed, Dr. Samar Mubarik Mand and their teams which made us the first Muslims nuclear power and seventh in the world. It is a remarkable achievement. Even the American military experts have confessed the superiority of our quality. The nuclear trigger of May 28, may have triggered the renaissance of Muslim golden era. From the ashes of Chagai, one could hear the fluttering of a phoenix. It is this kind of talent, imagination and human ingenuity we will need in all our efforts of acquiring and walking tall in the world of technology as we try to create a safer, more prosperous and more peaceful world for ourselves and our children.