New Delhi: Pakistan is strengthening the defence of its air bases with Chinese missile systems and Turkish gun technology to counter drones and other low-flying weapons.
The three systems are meant to work together around important military sites. Their job is to detect and deal with different kinds of threats, including drones, unmanned aerial vehicles, helicopters, cruise missiles and aircraft flying at low altitude. This system gives Pakistan several ways to respond to an incoming target, depending on its size, speed and distance from the protected site. The Korkut 35mm provides another layer, with an effective range of about four kilometres. He believes Pakistan could place an order for the system in the future. The HQ-17AE is a Chinese short-range surface-to-air missile system used against aircraft, helicopters, drones, cruise missiles and other aerial targets. Its mobile design allows it to be moved and deployed at different locations. Within the new defensive setup, the missile system provides the first layer against threats approaching a protected military facility. Closer to the target is Türkiye’s Aselsan Korkut. Mounted on a tracked platform, the system carries two 35mm automatic guns and uses programmable airburst ammunition. The rounds explode in the air and release fragments around the target.
A Pakistan Air Force (PAF) video released on September 7 showed three short-range air defence systems that are now part of this effort: China’s HQ-17AE surface-to-air missile system, Türkiye’s Aselsan Korkut 35mm automatic air defence gun and the Aselsan Sahin 40mm counter-drone system. The Sahin 40mm system is intended for very short-range use against small drones, with an effective range of around 700 metres. A third system, the LD-76, could provide an outer gun-based layer with a range of around 10 kilometres. The LD-76 was not officially shown in the September 7 PAF video. Chaudhry said a picture carrying the PAF’s official insignia surfaced a few weeks earlier and showed the LD-76 along with the Pakistani and Chinese flags. The gun systems are supported by the Chinese-made HQ-17AE, which can engage drones at distances of around 15 kilometres and can also be used against several other types of aerial weapons that may be difficult for guns to intercept.
Pakistani defence analyst Farooq Chaudhry said open-source information suggests the PAF has combined the HQ-17AE with several gun-based defence layers to tackle drones and other low-level aerial threats.
Korkut can be used against drones, hovercraft and other low-flying targets. Its gun-based design also gives Pakistan an option for dealing with large numbers of relatively cheap aerial threats without using a missile against every target. The innermost layer is the Sahin 40mm counter-drone system, which has been developed specifically for small and very small unmanned aerial vehicles. It uses radar, electro-optical sensors and an automatic fire-control system and fires 40mm airburst grenades that explode close to the target. The system is intended to protect important locations from small drones that get through the outer layers. The rising use of drones and other aerial weapons has led the service to put greater emphasis on ground-based air defence. He also highlighted the speed at which these systems have been added. Pakistani defence analysts attribute the change to lessons from the recent conflicts involving India and Afghanistan. The increased use of drones and unmanned weapons in those encounters has created new problems for conventional air defence. Military forces in several countries are now building layered systems that combine missiles, automatic guns and dedicated counter-drone technology. The idea is to match the response to the threat, using guns against small nearby targets and missiles when a threat is farther away or cannot be dealt with effectively by gun systems. The approach is also referred to as a close-in weapon system or CIWS. The intended network would cover threats ranging from drones and low-flying cruise missiles to longer-range weapons. It also shows the increasing role of China and Turkiye in Pakistan’s defence procurement. The systems are mainly meant for short-range and low-altitude threats, though they do not provide a complete air defence network. Dealing with such weapons would require other defensive capabilities, while the new systems are aimed mainly at the large number of smaller and cheaper drones that can be deployed in mass attacks.
The PAF’s latest display therefore gives a clearer picture of how Pakistan is adding ground-based weapons to its air defence structure, with Chinese missiles providing longer short-range coverage and Turkish gun systems handling targets much closer to protected sites. Chaudhry said the PAF traditionally relied on fighter jets and other air capabilities for air defence until 2025. The PAF has incorporated them into its defence structure within a year of the May 2025 conflict, according to him.
He said the three very short-range systems recently shown by the PAF are part of a larger plan to bring more counter-drone capabilities into its defensive network. Chaudhry said the PAF wants to combine Turkish gun technology with Chinese missile systems to create an ‘integrated base defence system’. Chaudhry said they would not protect Pakistan against high-speed cruise missiles such as India’s BrahMos.
