Why allow HIT to take funding from the central government to setup a new cottage industry of making small drones?. Why not allow that money to go into whoever is currently the largest UAV manufacturer in UAV's in Pakistan so that they can scale upwards even better so that they can have even better economies of scale?
The fact that this was allowed to happen, shows to me a lack of thought and joined up big picture thinking in the armed forces.
The thing is, people really sleep on HIT.
I would even argue HiT is the model for others to replicate, esp PAC and co.
HIT buys off the shelf, first few batches, works on how it can source from local vendors the same kit and eventually kick the OEM out of the supply chain, actually localising production. For example, a bunch of VT4 kit is all locally sourced, the numbers are on the related thread. While PAC imports every nut and bolt through the life cycle, not locally building capacity, HIT imports, then brings the production local.
In terms of drones, as jamd has said, theres a dime a dozen of these kinds of companies producing drones. Most get very small orders, the big ones will be service arm affiliated like AWC etc or either the legacy players.
The thing is, you have too many players involved when it comes to tri services procurement of these things. Also, consider the different operational role. We dont really know what HiT is planning, but lets say the PAF shoves Yiha down the army's throat, how does that align with its needs? Probably not very well.
in the same way, FPV drones etc wouldnt align with the PAF's needs, but would with the army.
I think the key here is being able to build components locally that can be spread across, adapted to the different designs and req's of the tri service arms.
ALSO, FWIW, i recall there being a report/screetching from India to Europe with regards to the setup of a production line at Heavy Industries Taxila for the local production of a European MALE UAV ToT. I think it did carry some weight, we're probably looking at Germany or Italy here. Pakistan has both great relations with AeroData who have a design and obviously Leonardo.
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