China has sold Pakistan an advanced tracking system that could boost Islamabad's efforts to improve ballistic missiles capable of delivering multiple warheads, according to The South China Morning Post.
The Post article stated the website of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) announced the deal with Pakistan. Zheng Mengwei, a researcher with the CAS Institute of Optics and Electronics, confirmed to the Post that the purchase was of a "highly sophisticated large-scale optical tracking and measurement system."
According to the Post, Chinese authorities declassified information about the deal on Wednesday. The article also stated "an optical system is a critical component in missile testing. It usually comes with a pair of high-performance telescopes equipped with a laser ranger, high-speed camera, infrared detector and a centralized computer system that automatically captures and follows moving targets.
“The device records high-resolution images of a missile's departure from its launcher, stage separation, tail flame and, after the missile re-enters atmosphere, the trajectory of the warheads it releases."
The CAS reported on its website that a Chinese team spent three months in Pakistan helping calibrate the system. "The system's performance surpassed the user's expectations," it said, adding that it was considerably more complex than Pakistan's home-made systems.
NPR reported that India has meanwhile been working on a missile defense system, which it claims to have successfully tested late last year.
However, Pakistan has concentrated on a possible countermeasure. In January 2017, it tested a missile that reportedly can deliver multiple warheads, known as MIRVs, which can greatly increase the number of incoming targets, possibly overwhelming missile defense systems, reported NPR.
Pakistan, after its first successful launch of the MIRV-capable missile, known as Ababeel, said in a statement that it is "aimed at ensuring survivability of Pakistan's ballistic missiles in the growing regional Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) environment."
India and Pakistan have been locked in a nuclear arms race since the two countries openly conducted nuclear weapons tests within days of one another in May 1998. Since then, their respective rocket and missile programs have also proceeded swiftly, frequently raising tensions in the South Asian region.
The Times of India meanwhile reported that while no details were available on how much Pakistan paid for this missile tracking system, Pakistani military has already deployed the system “at a firing range”, for use in testing and developing its new missiles.
The statement on the CAS website said China is the first country to export such sensitive equipment to Pakistan.
"It has been a long-held notion that Beijing is supporting Islamabad’s missile development programme. But solid evidence can seldom be found in the public domain, making the CAS statement a rarity," read the Post article.
The Post also reported that not only is Beijing supporting missile development in Pakistan, it was also the recipient of "VIP treatment" from Pakistan for this support. The report stated that the Chinese team that went to Pakistan to install the missile tracker was treated like royalty for the three months it was there.