Skip to main content

First batch of three F-16s lands in Pakistan

Sunday, June 27, 2010
By Shakil Shaikh

ISLAMABAD: With top security officials terming it a great breakthrough, the first batch of three latest version F-16 C/D Block-52 high-tech Fighting Falcons landed in Pakistan on Saturday.

“The induction of multi-role F-16 C/D Block-52 will give a great edge and a potent punch to Pakistan Air Force (PAF),” said a top official, who expressed his happiness over the arrival of Lockheed Martin’s F-16s at the PAF Base Shahbaz (Jacobabad).

These US Falcons reached Pakistan under “Peace Drive I” programme, continuing a long tradition of naming F-16 international sales programmes with the word Peace. The programme raises the total number of F-16s ordered by Pakistan to 54. The Pakistan Air Force received its first F-16, in the Block 15 F-16A/B configuration, in 1982. Pakistan has been operating Lockheed Martin aircraft since 1963, when it received C-130B airlifters.

Trained at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, Pakistani pilots brought the fighting Falcons to Pakistan. These pilots were the first to train in the US since 1983, when the last class of Pakistani pilots trained at the Luke Air Force Base, Ariz.

Air Marshal Mohammad Hasan, Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (Operations) and Air Marshal Waseem-ud-Din, Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (Administration), along with other senior PAF officials, received the aircraft at the base.

Pakistan attaches great significance to its air defence needs, as it had signed a contract with the US government in the year 2005-06 for the acquisition of 18 F-16 C/D Block 52 aircraft.

Under this arrangement, PAF would receive these state-of-the-art aircraft from the US in different batches. The delivery of all 18 aircraft would be completed by the end this year.

The F-16 C/D Block 52 aircraft is a high tech fighter aircraft equipped with sophisticated state-of-the-art avionics suite, latest weapons with night precision attack capability. These aircraft are much superior to the F-16A/Bs already in the inventory of the PAF. In June 2005, Pakistan requested the Foreign Military Sale (FMS) of 36 F-16C/D block 50/52 aircraft. In June 2006, the Pentagon notified Congress of its intention to approve the sale and Lockheed Martin was awarded a contract for 12 F-16C and six F-16D block 52 aircraft in Dec 2006. The aircraft will be armed with AMRAAM and Sidewinder missiles and the Sniper targeting pod.

The new planes purchased by Pakistan, Block 52 versions of the multi-role fighter, are far more advanced than the older A-model versions and will allow pilots to conduct operations at night and greatly enhance their use of precision munitions.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pakistani JF-17 A Thunder OR A Blunder

Pakistan has witnessed new defense acquisitions in this decade than any other, and in the center of it all is the new fighter which was designed by China with partial funding from Pakistan. It is formally known as JF-17 Thunder. When the fighter was in development, Pakistani online communities were jumping with excitement comparing it with its arch rival India’s modern combatants Su-30MKI, Mig-29S & Mirage-2000H. There were claims of it featuring western Radars and long range missiles, & Chinese ordering some due to its superior capabilities. But the reality is far from it. China having spent significant amount of money into a fighter which it is never going to use, most probably forced Pakistan to accept its avionics to offset some its development costs. Chinese who are known for their self reliance first and quality next, are further downgrading JF-17s capabilities with their poorly copy-pirated avionics. Along with their dubious weapons, any chance of JF
48 comments
READ MORE

Pakistani F-16s Shoot Down RAF Eurofighter Typhoons During Air Combat Exercises In Turkey

Pakistani pilots flying modernised versions of the 1970s-vintage F-16 Falcon fighter have beaten the RAF's brand-new Eurofighter Typhoon superfighters during air combat exercises in Turkey, according to a Pakistani officer. Analysis: The RAF Typhoon, formerly known as the Eurofighter, should nonetheless have been vastly superior in air-to-air combat whether BVR or close in within visual range (WVR). The cripplingly expensive, long-delayed Eurofighter was specifically designed to address the defects of its predecessor the Tornado F3 – famously almost useless in close-in, dogfighting-style air combat. The Typhoon was meant to see off such deadly in-close threats as Soviet "Fulcrums" and "Flankers" using short-range missiles fired using helmet-mounted sight systems: such planes were thought well able to beat not just Tornados but F-16s in close fighting, and this expectation was borne out after the Cold War when the Luftwaffe inherite
18 comments
READ MORE

India Planned Attack On Pak Navy Mehran Base To Kill Chinese Engineers

The terrorist attack on Karachi's Mehran Naval Station on May 22 was conceived and launched by India with the primary objective of killing the Chinese engineers present there, a Pakistani newspaper has claimed, citing 'informed sources'. Four to six Taliban terrorists had entered PNS Mehran on May 22, destroying two maritime surveillance aircraft and killing ten military personnel during their 17-hour siege of the naval air base. "India is the only country in the region that feels troubled by the Pakistan Navy, which had awfully beaten the Indian Navy in Operation Dwarka of 1965. Since then, it has been an earnest desire of India to harm the Pakistan Navy but it was perhaps not possible on the battle front, hence it struck the PNS Mehran," The News quoted sources as saying.
23 comments
READ MORE