ISLAMABAD, Nov 25: Moving a step closer to the dream of having armed drones, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and the army inducted their first fleet of surveillance drones named Burraq and Shahpar on Monday.

The drones were inducted into active service at a ceremony attended by outgoing army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, PAF chief Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt and the Director General of the Strategic Plans Division, retired Lt Gen Khalid Ahmed Kidwai.

Gen Kayani was quoted by the ISPR as saying at the ceremony that the “induction of indigenously developed surveillance-capable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Pakistan’s armed forces will substantially enhance their target acquisition capabilities in real time”.

Gen Kayani also visited the Naval Headquarters and met PN chief Admiral Mohammad Asif Sandila.

Pakistan has been working to indigenously produce drones for years. The first reports about such efforts appeared in 2009.

The spokesman did not talk about plans of developing the capability of drones to enable them to carry lethal payloads and instead said that the UAVs could also be “gainfully employed in various socio-economic development projects”.

The US had offered Scan Eagle and Shadow surveillance drones to Pakistan in 2010 but a deal could not be reached. Burraq and Shahpar are believed to have been developed with assistance from China and Turkey but are far less sophisticated than the Predators and Reapers.

Burraq has been developed/manufactured jointly by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and the National Engineering and Scientific Commission and is based on Italian Falco-Selex Galileo technology. Shahpar has been produced by the Global Industrial and Defence Solutions.