ISLAMABAD – The proposed multi-million-dollar deal under which the US would supply about a dozen unarmed drones to Pakistan has come across serious hurdles owing to the high price quoted by Washington and the time of delivery of the pilotless planes.
Pakistan is currently engaged in negotiations with the US to acquire 10 to 12 unarmed UAVs and each aircraft’s price is about $40 million. These negotiations have been going on for months now after the offer was made by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates in January 2010.
However, the important talks were marred by disagreements between Washington and Islamabad on the issues of pricing and the unnecessary delay in the supply of the spy planes on the part of US.
“The price of each plane that we are in talks with the US officials for is around $40 million but the price the US is asking is too high and we cannot afford it,” a senior official said. However, he declined to share the price demanded by the US authorities, adding, “The pilotless planes will be provided to Pakistan in three to four years, which is too long a time as we want to use these drones now,” he said.
“The drone system that is being negotiated with the American authorities is known as Shadow-200 and is currently used by the US Navy and its Marine Corps,” the official said. He said the Shadow-200 was equipped with an infrared camera which relayed real time videos to a ground control station. “It is a surveillance aircraft and is not equipped with weapons the Americans use to target militants in FATA,”
he said. Another Pakistani official said Pakistan originally wanted armed drones but the US turned down that request saying that so far they had not shared the technology with any other state. He said he was hoping the US and Pakistan would overcome their differences.
