For all the news of US drones attacking targets inside Pakistan, many might think that the country lacks a strong, powerful UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) fleet of its own, which is quite contrary to reality. Also, I do not see why we asked for US predator technology. With Wired magazine taking notice, and the Air force already having 2 UAV squadrons with 4 more on the way, why do we want imported super expensive US drones when stuff like that is being built right here in Karachi and Islamabad: (see pics below)
OR this : 
A UAV is the epitome of integrated engineering. Building a strong platform demands high software development skill, EE skill, mechanical and aeronautical engineers. You have to build a plane essentially, put it an robotic brain (software), advanced sensors and make sure all the motors and long range controls work.Build ground control stations that can operator off a laptop and do enough signal processing to make sure the video comes across clean and in focus. All at the same time. Not easy at all to do.Payloads are designed by separate firms that then work with the UAV designers to integrate and build a truly modular system capable of listening in on terrorists (and even civilians!) and providing targeting data and in some cases can attack targets themselves, like the predator. Other UAVs developed in Pakistan are built as air defense decoys, designed to fool missile systems to activate their radars and hence allow a manned fighter to launch attacks on the missle systems. And we have not one company working on this but several.
Integrated Dynamics in Karachi has several models developed already that are working in the field. SATUMA Pakistan is a pioneer in UAV technology in Pakistan. East-West provides alot of the sophisticated electronic devices that go into these UAVs to track terrorists. In 1997, when I found UAVs as a personal interest there was maybe one company working in this areas in pakistan. Today there is a growing ecosystem for robotics and UAVs, with workalso being done on UUVs (underwater unmanned vehicles) and ground recon robots.
So, do we still need the Predator? I think i’d rather we have institutes to train lots more engineers and software developers! We’d do better with them! National security would be better served by hordes of brilliant Pakistani engineers to back the soldiers in the field…ESPECIALLY when Pakistani firms are selling their UAVs to the US border patrol!!! (Yes, quite brilliant I must say, locally made UAVs are that good)
To learn more, here are some articles on UAVs in Pakistan : http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=3811950&c=FEA&s=SPE
(Note :Inspired by techlahore coverage of the same topic)
Above : The Stingray UAV - made by Satuma, small and quiet.
Popularity: 15% [?]
Liked the post? Stumble it!
November 28th, 2008 at 8:54 am
the concept behind using gyroscope and things based upon inertia turns me on.
November 28th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Wow. Our government is THAT stupid. They have lodged a formal request with the US for providing predator technology to them, without which they are but helpless babies. Democracy is such a farse.
November 29th, 2008 at 12:12 am
I betcha we could put little lasers on this stingray thingi too
November 30th, 2008 at 6:00 am
how authentic do you think is this defense news forum?
February 18th, 2009 at 2:50 am
1.u.a.v missile
2.u.a.v tank this u.a.v system teco can help pakistan has ideas come to life the pakistani youth can help pakistan by createing ideas and making those ideas in to reality i belive pakistanis all our the world are very intelegent the pakistani goverment dont give them a chance or create a stright thinking invirement for them the pakistani goverment must make a school of ideas where pakistanis can make and create ideas in to life with tecnological mind set pakistan can not keep buying arms or any thing els from other nations they must be self creative it will safe alot of many and that many we must invest in our ideas our children our schools hospitals pakistan has being buying arms which are not the real thing and which are codedid at time of war the f16s could stop working and we buy f16s we are not buying the full teconolgey of the f16 whay not make your own arms with your own 21 century ideas
February 20th, 2009 at 1:38 am
our goals are to make weapons? is that how we secure our future ?
February 28th, 2009 at 9:40 am
UAVs are not that difficult to make; it is the communications piece that makes the US UAVs the best. I doubt Pakistan as any UAVs capable of using satellite data links to fly anywhere in the world and provide video and or pictures to anywhere in the world. Pakistan’s UAVs would be most likely be capable of line of sight between the transmitters and receivers, limited by transmitter power. Even with US technology, Pakistan lacks the infrastructure to match United States capabilities.
March 5th, 2009 at 12:22 am
@Honest heart : To clarify, I am not supporting your comment, or weapons development of any kind to “secure” borders. the only way you could “secure” a nation, any nation, is by building sustainable knowledge economies. much tougher than building weapons too.
@1N0 : I would strongly differ. While I humbly feel that my post does not compare US system to Pakistani ones, I do contend that Pakistan as a country has enough technical know how to build UAVs to its own requirements.
Building a UAV, everything from the signal processing systems to the airframe is a difficult, coordinated project. In essence, its like a robotics project. Our politicians and leaders should spend more time learning about the scientific research being done in their own back yard.
May 16th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
[...] article on the UAV Industry in Pakistan and followed it up with a media gallery as well. ITT did a post on this last November. It is great to see several other media sources realizing this new technology [...]
May 17th, 2009 at 12:22 am
[...] article on the UAV Industry in Pakistan and followed it up with a media gallery as well. ITT did a post on this last November. It is great to see several other media sources realizing this new technology [...]
May 17th, 2009 at 1:27 am
[...] article on the UAV Industry in Pakistan and followed it up with a media gallery as well. ITT did a post on this last November. It is great to see several other media sources realizing this new technology [...]
May 17th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
[...] know more about these Pakistani UAV companies Read following articles Dawn News Mohtashim IT Tazi Tech [...]
October 5th, 2009 at 12:13 am
@ 1N0 .. Pakistani Uav’s are not limited to line of sight flying. They can fly upto 60 Km and can send video and data from there and also they are of very smart engineering and trust me they are !!!
.Although not the levl of predator but Integrated Dynamics are building good UAV’s
August 19th, 2010 at 8:48 am
speak softly but carry a big stick