Pakistan Wants Radar Plane to Spot Afghan Jets

Pakistan, faced with a sharp escalation of its undeclared air war with Afghanistan, has asked to lease American radar surveillance aircraft, an Administration official said Tuesday.

The official said that no decision has been made on the request, which came in a letter from Pakistani Prime Minister Mohammed Khan Junejo to President Reagan. Pakistan is seeking either the Air Force AWACS (airborne warning and control system) or the far less expensive Navy Hawkeye system. Both planes can spot enemy aircraft at a distance of hundreds of miles.

“They definitely need something to give them some minutes of extra time to warn them when Afghan planes are about to make a bombing run,” the official said. He said that Afghan incursions into Pakistan have more than doubled this year.

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger agreed last year that Pakistan should be allowed to obtain the aircraft. But there has been no final decision on the matter, in part because of the inability of the Islamabad government to pay for the expensive aircraft. India also has objected strongly to Pakistan’s acquisition of the sophisticated planes.

The Administration official said that it would cost Pakistan less to lease the planes than to buy them. Under a lease, American crews would man the aircraft, keeping them far enough away from the border to avoid combat. A lease arrangement also might be less threatening to India because Washington could provide assurances that the planes would be operated only on the Afghanistan border.