Pakistan Is Making New Tracked APCs

After its cancellation last year the Pakistan Day military parade in Islamabad returned with an assortment of never before seen hardware. If much of the resulting spectacle at the Shakarparian Parade Ground relied on infantry squares and giant missiles this caused less attention being paid to the humbler yet more vital equipment. Every branch of the country’s armed forces upgraded their inventories throughout the 2010s and these changes aren’t examined at length. Seen at the March 23 parade after the tank formation involving the Haider and the Al Khalid I rolled by were a separate column of armored personnel carriers (APCs) representing the army’s mechanized units.

This year’s military parade featured a recent model by HIT to augment the M113A2 APC: the Maaz. It’s recognizable for a new hull and can be armed with an anti-tank missile launcher but shares all the usual features of the prolific M113A2. (See photo above.) The state-owned Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT) has tried pushing the envelope with its favorite APC model for decades now and these efforts led to the Sakb command vehicle; the Al Qaswa tracked logistics transporter; the Al Hadeed recovery vehicle; the M113P with an extensive armor upgrade. The Talha, whose external characteristics mimicked the AIFV from the 1970s, was a comprehensive upgrade for the M113A2 and the related Saad had an elongated hull and 12 wheels in its tracks suggesting it could have become an infantry fighting vehicle over time. These two models, the Talha and the Saad, are approved for export.

With its appearance patterned after the storied AIFV, rather its hull, the Talha is the latest effort by HIT to improve on its four decades of M113A2 production. The original US-made AIFV was an export success in the 1980s after it lost a competition against the M2 Bradley, which was produced on the scale of several thousand units. Meanwhile the AIFV was adopted by the armies of Belgium and the Netherlands under different names then later on production was transferred to South Korea and Türkiye. The AIFV flourished as a dependable and modular troop carrier, with or without its small turret, as it served decades in many armies. It’s not surprising HIT introduced the Talha and M113P APCs almost 20 years ago. Both are models resembling the Turkish ACV-15 made by FNSS and the South Korean K200 made by Hyundai/Doosan Infracore.

The Maaz APCs, loosely described as “tank destroyers” for their armament, that were seen at this year’s Pakistan Day parade are a continuation of the Talha. This is evident from observing the the hull’s dimensions and layout. As a combat vehicle an armored cupola can be added to serve as a turret. The sole armament is a heavy machine gun like the DShK or Type 54 made by the state-owned ordnance factory POF. For the anti-tank role a manually operated Baktar Shikan (HJ-8) launcher is added on the roof and its missiles are effective as far as 3,000 meters. The basic armaments on HIT’s M113 variants remains baffling as an abundance of remote weapon stations can be transferred from different suppliers and added to these APCs.

Aside from slight changes to the hull’s layout there aren’t any notable improvements on either the Maaz or Talha. Looking at the bigger picture the army’s success with improving its tank fleet, having grown to five models using 125mm main guns (Al Zarrar, Type 85-II, T-80UD, Al Khalid, Haider), demands a substantial APC fleet for delivering infantry. The total fleet of M113-series APCs counted by the army reaches the low thousands and other branches as well as government agencies operate the model too. The Talhas and Saads are likely the compromise that fulfill an important niche: enlarging the fleet of older APCs while being a stopgap for the army before it fields a new model. Whether the army plans on fielding a current-generation IFV soon is anyone’s guess as work on a prototype is underway but details are scarce. It makes sense why the production of new M113-series variants and derivatives are alive and well.