Pakistan To Develop Long Endurance Attack Drone

Pakistan has revealed a fifth generation Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) attack drone project which it says is in an advanced stage of development.

Air Force Chief Sohail Aman talked about the 5th gen drone project while inaugurating the Kamra Aviation City initiative.

“Our engineering and operational staff have indigenized few core capabilities which are truly high-tech … (the) initiative of Project Azam was thus encouraged, which is the designing of the 5th-generation fighter aircraft, [MALE] UAVs – which are [in the] final stages..," he was quoted as saying in a Pakistani defence blog Quwa.

IHS Janes had reported in February during IDEX 2017 in Abu Dhabi that Pakistan's Global Industry and Defence Solutions (GIDS) was in the process of enhancing the capabilities of its Shahpar unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and working to develop a larger system.

Pakistan's military currently operates two systems procured from European manufacturers - the Luna and Falco.

“As indigenous capabilities progress these (Luna and Falco) will be phased out of service and the enhancements to the Shahpar are part of that process,” Asad Kamal, GIDS' director of sales and marketing was quoted as saying by Janes as saying.