Monday, September 5 2005 14:15 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Pakistan is reported to be in the process of acquiring a German Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system in the current fiscal.

Chief of General Staff Lt Gen Tariq Majeed has'instructed the Military Operations and Military Intelligence Directorates to arrange funds of over 27 million US dollars to buy four to five LUNA UAV Systems in fiscal 2005-06 under the Army Future Development Programe Fund - 2019", the South Asia Tribune, run by a Pakistani journalist, said in a report.

However, experts quoted in the report said the Pakistan Army had its own UAV development programme for the past eight years 'In which they were making three types of tactical UAV systems. These UAV systems include Hud-Hud and two others manufactured by Integrated Defense Services'.

"One local private company SATUMA, based in the Kahuta Triangle in Islamabad, is also manufacturing UAV systems which are being used and deployed by the Pakistan Air Force".

"All locally made UAVs are 60-70 per cent cheaper than what is being doled out to this inferior system from Germany", the report claimed, and quoted experts as saying that LUNA was "Not even considered to be a military system and is not used in the theatre of war because of its inferior technology. The international market is full of better UAV systems that are more suited to military roles".

The report said that in its ongoing evaluation, the General Headquarters was also considering the French, American and a German Tactical Military UAV systems though none of them has been called for in-country trials.

"The French UAV system was shown to the ex-Vice Chief of General Staff and now Corps Commander Karachi" in France in 2004, it said.