Pakistan Air Force (PAF) is prepared to achieve capability of keeping its indigenously developed fighter aircraft “JF 17 (Thunder) airborne for longer haul, said Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafiq Butt. “The ground tests had been very successful and i’m satisfied. The air to air refueling test) would be done successfully by end of this summer, Air Chief Marshal Butt said in an interview with Defence Jane’s Weekly. Pakistan had acquired the refueling air tankers Ilyushin II-78 from Ukraine back in 2010 and these are being synchronized with Medium to High Tech multi-role aircraft thus giving it the potential to stay in air for longer durations.
ACM Butt mentioned that the aptitude would enhance the marketability of the aircraft which currently is being monitored by various countries as a result of its cost effectiveness and other valuable abilities.
“The JF-17 program have been an awesome project to pursue, because of the exertions installed by our engineers, technicians and test pilots,” ACM Butt said. “All this might also not had been possible without the cooperation of China.”
He said JF-17 with a lovely price ticket has the aptitude of carrying a number of weapons, this is a true multirole aircraft and in time “would become the PAF’s mainstay.”
He said that PAF has plan to induct around 200 t0 250 JF-17 aircraft.
Answering a matter in regards to the induction of Chinese-built ZDK-03 airborne early warning aircraft – a platform, ACM Butt said it has to this point shown that its capabilities work well over sea, plains and mountainous terrain.”
In the meantime, he said PAF has also been maintaining and operating a sizeable fleet folks F-16 aircraft for a substantial time and its air/ground crew are fairly experienced in handling the weapon system.
“The PAF received its last batch of F-16s inside the recent past or even now there are US Congressional clearances available for the availability of extra F-16 aircraft. Because of requirements/compulsions one day, there exists conceivable of acquisition of extra F-16 aircraft, he said.
To a question regarding purchase of High Tech aircraft, he said options are still open.
ACM Butt said that PAF must prepare for a two-front situation in view of its combat role in Pakistan’s anti- terrorism campaign, which has evolved because the 9/11 attacks at the US, as well as its historic adversarial role as India’s neighbor.
“Airpower can achieve so much more in a quick span of time if employed with clear understanding of its capabilities,” he said. “Its inherent flexibility has enabled nation states to successfully deter their conventional adversaries in addition to prosecute irregular outfits. We’re now faced with a certain two-front scenario: external in addition to internal. While we now have always prepared for the conventional and ominous external threat, the hot predicament did take us a long time to stand up to hurry with, but …we did have the capacity to learn at the job quickly and are very efficiently supporting our ground troops in all their operations against militants/terrorists.”
Related Topic Tags