1965 Indo-Pakistan War
PAF B-57 Canberra bombers lined up at an airbase.
The PAF fleet at the time consisted of 12 F-104 Starfighters, some 120 F-86 Sabres and around 20 B-57 Canberra bombers. The PAF claims to have had complete air superiority over the battle area from the second day of operations. While, Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh of the Indian Air Force claimed, despite been qualitative inferior,
IAF achieved air superiority in three days in the 1965 War..
Many publications have credited the PAF's successes to U.S. equipment, claiming it to be superior to the aircraft operated by the IAF and giving the PAF a "qualitative advantage". However some people refute this argument. As per them, the IAF's
MiG-21, Hawker Hunter and Folland Gnat aircraft had better performance than the PAF's F-86 fighters. According to Air Cdre (retired) Sajad Haider, the F-86 Sabre was inferior in both power and speed to the IAF's Hawker Hunter.
According to Air Commodore (retired) Sajjad Haider who flew with No. 19 squadron, the F-104 Starfighter did not deserve its reputation as "the pride of the PAF" because it "was unsuited to the tactical environment of the region. It was a high-level interceptor designed to neutralize Soviet strategic bombers in altitudes above 40,000 feet.".
According to Indian sources, the F-86F performed reasonably well against the IAF
Hawker Hunters but not as well against the Folland Gnat, which was nicknamed
Sabre Slayer by the IAF.
According to Indian sources most aircraft losses of IAF were on ground while PAF lost most in aerial combat. Even though the IAF flew a larger offensive air campaign by devoting 40% of its air effort to offensive air support alone, according to Indian sources the majority of its losses came from aircraft destroyed on the ground through PAF air strikes. The PAF without doubt, had achieved far more in terms of enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground but the IAF had achieved much more in the close support role.
The two countries have made contradictory claims of combat losses during the war and few neutral sources have verified the claims of either country. The PAF claimed it shot down 104 IAF planes and lost 19 of its own, while the IAF claimed it shot down 73 PAF planes and lost 59. Despite the intense fighting, the conflict was effectively a stalemate.
Post-war sanctions and acquisitions
After the 1965 war the U.S. placed an arms embargo on Pakistan and the PAF was badly affected. Its entire fleet was of U.S. origin and spare parts could not be sourced from the United States.
The PAF began searching for new combat aircraft. China was approached and agreed to supply an initial 72
Shenyang F-6 fighters and it was inducted on 30 December 1965.[
citation needed] China also supplied a squadron of
Harbin B-5 bombers which the PAF was not satisfied with due to their lack of a modern bomb aiming system. These were later returned to China in exchange for more
Shenyang F-6.
In 1968 the PAF's No. 5 Squadron started converting to the
Dassault Mirage IIIEP. As the F-6 was a short range air defence fighter, the Mirage III was the PAF's main offensive weapon. Even still, the Mirage was not equipped with modern munitions such as anti-runway bombs for attacking airbases, cluster bombs for attacking armoured formations or anti-ship weapons because such weapons could not be sourced from the U.S. or Europe. The Mirage was also restricted by lack of equipment such as bomb pylons and missile launchers, which meant the Mirage III fleet was limited in terms of weapon configurations.
1971 Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistan War
By late 1971, the intensification of the independence movement in erstwhile
East Pakistan lead to the
Bangladesh Liberation War between India and Pakistan . On 22 November 1971, 10 days before the start of a full-scale war, four PAF
F-86 Sabre jets attacked Indian and
Mukti Bahini positions at
Garibpur, near the international border. Two of the four PAF Sabres
were shot down and one damaged by the IAF's
Folland Gnats.
On 3 December, India formally
declared war against Pakistan following massive
preemptive strikes by the PAF against Indian Air Force installations in Srinagar, Ambala, Sirsa, Halwara and Jodhpur. However, the IAF did not suffer significantly because the leadership had anticipated such a move and precautions were taken.
[21] The Indian Air Force was quick to respond to Pakistani air strikes, following which the PAF carried out mostly defensive
sorties.
[22]
Within the first two weeks, the IAF had carried out almost 12,000 sorties over East Pakistan and also provided
close air support to the advancing Indian Army. IAF also assisted the
Indian Navy in its operations against the
Pakistani Navy and
Maritime Security Agency in the
Bay of Bengal and
Arabian Sea. On the western front, the IAF destroyed more than 20 Pakistani tanks, 4
APCs and a supply train during the
Battle of Longewala.
The IAF undertook strategic bombing of
West Pakistan by carrying out raids on oil installations in
Karachi, the
Mangla Dam and a gas plant in Sindh. Similar strategy was also deployed in East Pakistan and as the IAF achieved complete
air superiority on the eastern front, the ordnance factories, runways, and other vital areas of East Pakistan were severely damaged.
The IAF was able to conduct a wide range of missions – troop support; air combat; deep penetration strikes; para-dropping behind enemy lines; feints to draw enemy fighters away from the actual target; bombing; and reconnaissance.
Hostilities officially ended at 14:30 GMT on 17 December, after the fall of Dacca on 15 December. Despite strategic loss of Pakistan on eastern front, PAF maintained its qualitative edge and dominated the sky during the war and according to declassified CIA document about 71 IAF aircraft were lost while,
Pakistan lost 43 aircraft during war. But the imbalance in air losses was explained by the IAF's considerably higher sortie rate, and its emphasis on ground-attack missions. On the ground Pakistan suffered most, with 9,000 killed and 25,000 wounded while India lost 3,000 dead and 12,000 wounded.
The loss of armoured vehicles was similarly imbalanced. This represented a major defeat for Pakistan.
[29] Towards the end of the war, IAF's transport planes dropped leaflets over Dhaka urging the Pakistani forces to surrender, demoralising Pakistani troops in East Pakistan. According to some spectators 1971 war was more of a political defeat for Pakistan rather military.
1972–1979
In 1979, the PAF's
Chief of Air Staff,
Air Chief Marshal Anwar Shamim, was told by then
President, and
Chief of Army Staff General Zia ul Haq that Pakistan had reliable information of Indian plans to attack and destroy the Pakistani nuclear research facilities at
Kahuta.
ACM Shamim told General Zia that Indian aircraft could reach the area in 3 minutes whereas the PAF would take 8 minutes, allowing the Indians to attack the facility and return before the PAF could defend it. Because Kahuta was too close to the Indian border to be effectively defended it was decided that the best way to deter an Indian attack would be to procure new advanced fighters and weaponry. These would be used to mount a retaliatory attack on India's nuclear research facilities at
Trombay in the event of an Indian attack on Kahuta.
It was decided the most suitable aircraft would be the
F-16, which the United States eventually agreed to supply after the PAF refused to buy the
F-5E and
F-5G. In 1983, when the first batch of F-16s reached Pakistan, ACM Shamim informed Zia of the PAF's capability to respond to an attack on the nuclear research facilities at Kahuta.
1979–1988: Soviet–Afghan War
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 in support of the pro-Soviet government in Kabul, which was being hard-pressed by Mujahadeen rebel forces, marked the start of a decade-long occupation. Mujahadeen rebels continued to harass the occupying Soviet military force as well as the forces of the Afghan regime that it was supporting.
The war soon spilled over into neighbouring Pakistan, with a horde of refugees fleeing to camps across the border in an attempt to escape the conflict. In addition, many of the rebels used Pakistan as a sanctuary from which to carry out forays into Afghanistan, and a steady flow of US-supplied arms was carried into Afghanistan from staging areas in Pakistan near the border. This inevitably resulted in border violations by Soviet and Afghan aircraft attempting to interdict these operations.
The PAF is believed to have evaluated the
Dassault Mirage 2000 in early 1981 and was planning to evaluate the
General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon afterwards.
A letter of agreement for up to 28
F-16A and 12
F-16B was signed December 1981. The contracts,
Peace Gate I and
Peace Gate II, were for 6 and 34 Block 15 models respectively which would be powered by the
F100-PW-200 engine. The first
Peace Gate I aircraft was accepted at Fort Worth in October 1982. Two F-16A and four F-16B were delivered to Pakistan in 1983, the first F-16 arriving at
PAF Base Sargodha (now known as PAF Base Mushaf) on 15 January 1983 flown by Squadron Leader Shahid Javed. The 34 remaining
Peace Gate II aircraft were delivered between 1983 and 1987.
[34][35] Six F-16A and four F-16B Block 15 OCU models were ordered as attrition replacements in December 1988 under the
Peace Gate III contract. Another 60 F-16A/B were ordered in September 1989 under
Peace Gate IV. These were later embargoed.
Between May 1986 and November 1988, PAF F-16s have shot down at least eight intruders from Afghanistan. The first three of these (one Su-22, one probable Su-22, and one An-26) were shot down by two pilots from No. 9 Squadron. Pilots of No. 14 Squadron destroyed the remaining five intruders (two Su-22s, two MiG-23s, and one Su-25).
Most of these kills were by the AIM-9 Sidewinder, but at least one (a Su-22) was destroyed by cannon fire. Flight Lieutenant Khalid Mahmood is credited with three of these kills. One F-16 was lost in these battles during an encounter between two F-16s and six Afghan Air Force aircraft on 29 April 1987, stated by the PAF to have been an "own-goal" because it was hit by an
AIM-9 Sidewinder fired from the other F-16. The pilot, Flight Lieutenant Shahid Sikandar Khan, ejected safely. Most of these air kills were achieved within Pakistani borders. No.9 Sqn was credited with 3 kills, where as No.14 Sqn was credited with 5 kills. . One of the PAF's kills included
Alexander Rutskoy who was shot down on 8 August on Su-25 Frogfoot.
Project Sabre II was initiated by the PAF in 1987 and was aimed at developing a replacement for the ageing Shenyang F-6 fleet. After a design study by Grumman Aerospace determined it would be to financially risky, it was abandoned by PAF and the
Chengdu F-7P was introduced in 1988 to replace the F-6.
1989–2001: sanctions and the 'lost decade'
The
Pressler Amendment passed by the US Congress, in 1985, prevented the sale of materiel to Pakistan unless it could be verified that the goods would not be used to build or deliver nuclear weapons. Subsequently, the US also placed a broader embargo on Pakistan on 6 October 1990, due to the country's continued nuclear weapons programme.
As a stop-gap measure, it was decided to augment the PAF fleet with second-hand Mirage III fighters. In April 1990, Pakistan signed a contract to purchase 50 used
Mirage IIIO interceptors, which had recently been retired by the
Royal Australian Air Force. While the initial asking price was more than
A$100 million, the figure settled on and paid, including spare airframes and many other parts, was reportedly A$27 million.
In November 1990 the partly-disassembled Mirages and spares were shipped by sea to Karachi and then transported on trailers to
PAF Base Masroor. After some further dismantling they were flown by C-130 Hercules to the Aeronautical Complex at Kamra, where they were to undergo a full rebuild process.
However, it was discovered that the ex-RAAF Mirages were generally in better condition than expected and some did not require a complete overhaul. Other variants of the Mirage III (mostly IIIE) and/or Mirage V were bought from Belgium, Spain, Lebanon and Libya. Parts and auxiliary equipment for the Mirages were acquired in countries including France and South Africa. From 1995, many of the Mirages were upgraded and standardised by the PAF under
Project ROSE.
As a result of the Pressler Amendment, 11
Peace Gate III F-16s, along with 7 F-16A and 10 F-16B of the 60
Peace Gate IV F-16s, which had been built by the end of 1994 were embargoed and put into storage in the United States.
Desperate for a new high-tech combat aircraft, between late 1990 and 1993 the PAF evaluated the European
Panavia Tornado MRCA (multi-role combat aircraft) and rejected it. The
Mirage 2000E and an offer from Poland for the supply of
MiG-29 and
Su-27 were also considered but nothing materialised. In 1992 the PAF again looked at the
Mirage 2000, reviving a proposal from the early 1980s to procure around 20–40 aircraft, but again a sale did not occur because France did not want to sell a fully capable version due to political reasons. In August 1994 the PAF was offered the
Saab JAS-39 Gripen by Sweden, but again the sale did not occur because 20% of the Gripen's components were from the U.S. and Pakistan was still under U.S. sanctions.
In mid-1992 Pakistan was close to signing a contract for the supply of 40
Dassault Mirage 2000, equipped with Thomson-CSF RDM/7 radars, from France but the deal was never signed. In mid-1994 it was reported that the Russian manufacturers Sukhoi and Mikoyan were offering the Su-27 and MiG-29. But Pakistan was later reported to be negotiating for supply of the
Dassault Mirage 2000-5. French and Russian teams visited Pakistan on 27 November 1994 and it was speculated that interest in the Russian aircraft was to pressure France into reducing the price of the Mirage 2000. Stated requirement was for up to 40 aircraft.
In 1996 it was reported that Pakistan was negotiating a $160 million contract for missiles with South Africa, believed to be for the Kentron (now Denel) U-darter imaging-infra-red short range air-to-air missile.
