Defense News quotes South Asia Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Claude Rakisits on the US State Department clearing a $952 million sale to Pakistan that includes fifteen AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters and 1,000 Hellfire II missiles:
Claude Rakisits, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center, said that “in its deliberations about whether to approve such a sale to Pakistan, the fact that the provision of this new capability will not alter the military balance between the two nuclear-armed states – Pakistan and India – will make it easier for the lawmakers to agree to this sale.”