The Pakistan Army on 7 September claimed to have successfully used an indigenously built armed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to target a Taliban location for the first time.Major General Asim Bajwa, chief spokesman of Pakistan's armed forces, said in a Twitter post that "a terrorist compound was hit and three militants were killed" in the Shawal valley of north Waziristan close to the Afghan border. He added that the air strike was carried out by the indigenous Burraq UAV.The strike was the first time that a Pakistani UAV had demonstrated an offensive capability in the battlefield, departing from the country's known use of UAVs for reconnaissance purposes.Pakistani defence officials have previously told IHS Jane's the Burraq and Shahpar UAVs, both of which can be armed, were designed and built in country, although few technical details have been revealed.Analysis of the two UAVs' platforms shows a close resemblance to China's CH-3 UAV. In 2010, IHS Jane's reported that 20 CH-3s were to be delivered to Pakistan in 2011."Pakistan has a close working relationship with China for joint development of military hardware. In the past, China has helped Pakistan fill the gap and I suspect this is what has happened again with the latest [UAV] too," a senior Western defence official told IHS Jane's .Pakistani officials have previously admitted to IHS Jane's that the country made several requests to the United States to purchase UAVs but were repeatedly rebuffed.
