“Most of Islamabad’s purchases have been big-ticket items that would be hard to deploy in counterinsurgency fights in the rugged tribal area where the Taliban and al-Qaida are holed up. They include: maritime surveillance aircraft; harpoon missiles designed to sink warships; large howitzers that have to be towed into position; and a fleet of F-16 fighter jets.”
Pakistan’s navy supports the coalition forces with supply ships and patrols in the Indian Ocean, plus F16s can be very useful in obliterating the enemy when you find them holed in groups. The author is clueless.
The only one clueless here is you. PNS dont do support for coalition forces and their F-16s dont do ground strikes on terrorists.
Ok here are a few specific items the Pakis want/are getting,judge for yourself whether they are of any use against terrorists-
1.Are Harpoon Block-2 anti-ship missiles with GPS guidance & a range of 70 miles vital to support operations against a few Pirates & rowboars??The list includes upto 50 submarine launched variants of this missile-who is that meant for??
2.The F-16s they will be getting will have Conformal fuel tanks-giving a range increase of upto 40%,,depending on mission configuration.You don’t even need new F-16s to take on terrorists.A few attack helos or retired US F-16s would do.
3.The list includes 500 AMRAAM medium range air to air missiles.Pakistan’s purchase of this number was the largest single such purchase for this weapon.Will these be used to take out Osama’s fleet of flying carpets from a range of 50 miles???
4.The TOW missiles they are getting have tandem warheads-Ideal for hitting modern tanks with explosive reactive armour.Meaningless for going against folks living in caves.
5.Pakistan will also reportedly get the JSOW glide bombs which use GPS guidance with ranges from 20 to 100 kilometres??Paveway LGBs can do the same role-so who are the JSOWs meant for.