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Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Friday unveiled what Islamabad claimed was the "world's first Main Battle Tank of the millennium" built in collaboration with China, saying the country cannot lower its guard and must keep a "desired level of deterrence" against "misadventures" of its "adversaries".
Flagging off the first batch of the 15 newly built MBTs, named Al-Khalid, Musharraf said Pakistan worked for peace and tranquillity.
"This, however, cannot be at the cost of security. We cannot lower our guard and must have the desired deterrent against misadventures by our adversaries. My government would provide all the resources to ensure a strong defence for a stable Pakistan."
He said, the newly built MBT could be matched only by the German Leopards.
"With the highest power-to-weight ratio in the world, Al-Khalid has an agility that can be matched only by the German Leopard."
"Its ability to automatically track targets, similarly, is available only on the French Leclerc. With Hunter Killer Day-Night Sight and a state-of-the-art-fire control system, Al-Khalid is truly a world class tank," he said.
While describing the features of the newly built tank, the chairman of the Pakistan's ordinance factory, Heavy Industries Taxila, Lt Gen Hamid Javed claimed that the Al-Khalid was the world's "first MBT of the new millennium".
He said the tank was built within eight years at a cost of $20 million, compared to the Indian effort to develop MBT Arjun, which took 25 years and cost $500 million.
According to official statistics, Pakistan has about 2300 battle tanks against India's 3500.
Musharraf, in his speech, also thanked China for its cooperation and spoke about the need for synchronising the progress in the field of defence with that of economic development.
"Over the years our nation has made sacrifices in the establishment of defence production facilities. It is time now that we started getting dividends by diversifying defence industry and promoting export of defence equipment."
"I am very confident that the weapons and equipment produced by our defence production establishments are of high quality and are available at competitive prices," Musharraf said.
Al-Khalid, according to HIT officials, is an ideal blend of mobility, firepower and protection, and its high agility and obstacle crossing capability makes it an effective weapon that can match the tactical requirements of modern warfare.
It has one of the most powerful guns mounted on the tank, which can engage targets at long stand-off distances, they claimed.
PTI
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