Headquartered in Nowshera, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan, the corps is commanded by its director-general, Major-General Zafar Marwat as of 2023.[2]
Overview
The Pakistan Army's armored corps was commissioned as an administrative corps from the partition of the former British Indian Army's Armoured Corps– there were six regiments that formed the basis of the Armoured Corps.: 156 [5][6]
During the early years, the British Army officers played a crucial role in running the military operations from the Nowshera Cantonment which remains till this day Armoured Corps' headquarter.: 83 [7] Until 1956, the training and field manuals were based on British Army but later adopted U.S. Army's field manual and training, which is continue to be practiced by armoured corps' training school.[8] The School of Armor and Mechanized Warfare trains cadets and officers to be a part of the Armored Corps at the Nowshera Cantonment.[9] The Armored Corps is commanded by the director-general who is usually at two-star active duty rank, Major-General, working directly under the Chief of the General Staff at the Army GHQ in Rawalpindi.[8]
The Armoured Corps only has an administrative control over its combat strike brigades and such brigade teams are employed in numbers of strike maneuver corps to defend the national borders of Pakistan from the foreign threats.[10][11][12][13]
Until 2001, the armoured corps was focused towards opposing Indian advances in the east but later stationed its interests in western border to prevent foreign threats coming from Afghanistanr.[14]
Al-Zarrar Main Battle Tank of the Pakistan ArmyA column of Pakistani Type 59 tanks during the 1965 War.2nd Bombay Lancers (now 13th Lancers). Coloured lithograph by Richard Simkin, 1885.
Equipment
Armoured Corps regiments are equipped with the following:
The VT4 is a Chinese third-generation MBT specifically made for export.
The Al-Khalid main battle tank is a joint Sino-Pakistani production with a 125 mm smoothbore gun.
The T-80UD is of Ukrainian origin with a 125 mm smoothbore gun.
The Al-Zarrar is a heavily upgraded version of the Chinese Type 59 tank equipped with a 125mm smoothbore cannon, ERA, and many more modern equipment.
The T-85III is an upgraded version of the Chinese T-85AP with a 125 mm smoothbore gun.
The Type 69 tank is a Chinese MBT with a 105 mm gun.
^The President's Body Guard was formed at independence from the Governor General's Bodyguard, which was raised in 1773 under the name of Governor's Troop of Mughals at that time. In 1956 its name was changed to President's Bodyguard from when Pakistan became a republic. It is the senior-most armoured regiment of Pakistan Army.
^25th Cavalry (Frontier Force) stopped the Indian Army armoured thrust during the Battle of Chawinda in 1965. The regiment was given the sobriquet " Men of Steel" by the then Army Chief of Staff.