GIDS Nishana PGK: The Low-Cost Tech Breathing New Life into Old Munitions Quwa Premium

Pakistan’s International Industrial and Defence Options (GIDS) revealed its family of screw-on precision-guidance kits (PGK) beneath the “Nishana” designation.

The Nishana PGK was designed to adapt to all kinds of non-guided munitions – together with mortar shells, artillery shells, rockets, and normal goal bombs (GPB) – into satellite-guided (GPS/GNSS) munitions.

That is carried out by changing the munition’s customary fuzes with Nishana fuzes, which pair a brand new fuze with a GPS/GNSS-based steerage system and aerodynamic management surfaces. In any other case, the conversion entails no different modifications.

In response to GIDS, the Nishana PGK permits militaries to transform their present shares of unguided munitions quickly – be it surface-launched or airborne – into guided ones with comparatively minimal extra conversion work. 

Not solely does this method scale back upfront procurement prices, but it surely additionally eliminates the necessity to change present artillery weapons, rocket launchers, and different launch platforms to allow precision-guided functionality.

In a broad sense, the Nishana might be considered as Pakistan’s analogous counterpart to the U.S. M1156, a PGK resolution that converts 155 mm artillery shells into GPS-guided munitions. It affords an accuracy of inside 30 m CEP. 

The M1156 has been in manufacturing since 2013 and, in response to an August 2024 U.S. State Division notification, prices roughly $12,727 per unit. 

Whereas markedly decrease in value than a new-generation guided shell, such because the M982 Excalibur, PGKs just like the M1156 (and, by extension, the Nishana) require trade-offs to manage prices by way of accuracy and vary.

The M982 affords an accuracy of inside 4-5 m CEP and a spread of 40-57 km, and even 70 km when fired from a 58-calibre Prolonged Vary Cannon Artilery (ERCA) gun. 

Thus, the M928 is a markedly extra succesful munition, but it surely comes with a a lot increased price ticket (e.g., $217,592+ per shell for India in 2025 or $177,859 per shell for the Spanish Military in 2023).

In impact, the M1156 and M982 play complementary roles within the wider guided artillery ‘stack’, so to talk – i.e., one serves as a high-performance munition for high-value targets (M982), whereas the opposite drives scale by adapting massive volumes of present and even new-build shares whereas controlling prices. 

Pakistan might be working in the direction of an identical interaction between the Nishana PGK and its rising portfolio of purpose-built good munitions. 

GIDS didn’t disclose the Nishana PGK’s efficiency specs; nevertheless, one can infer that its accuracy will seemingly be similar to that of the M1156 – i.e., inside 30 m CEP, particularly as the only real steerage mechanism is GPS/INSS. For reference, one other Pakistani-designed resolution, the DynTek Tipu guided artillery shell, achieves a 20 m CEP with GNSS/GPS-aided INS, whereas the semi-active laser-homing (SALH) variant achieves a 2 m CEP.