During this period PAF flew day night CAPs over vital points and areas. These sorties boosted the morale of the public which was hit hard by the terrorist attacks and inflation. The spirit of 1965 was felt when PAF jets roared above the public. These sorties demoralized the IAF which expected a walk in the park, when it planned for the strikes in Pakistan airspace. IAF CAS on a couple of occasions mentioned that he is quite disturbed with PAF aircraft flowing close to the border in battle formations giving an aggressive posture. The Indian war rhetoric failed to impress Pakistan. Instead, the focus shifted to Indian intelligence agencies’ failure to put together credible evidence implicating Pakistan in the Mumbai attacks.
Thus after February 2009, India decided to end the conflict and switched back to the old routine of blaming Pakistan using their media.
On 20th February 2009, F-7MPs from Chaklala were seen returning to their peacetime positions indicating an end to the military standoff.
Exercise Iron Falcon 2009
Exercise Iron Falcon are military aerial training exercises at United Arab Emirates Air Warfare Center UAEAWC. Various squadrons from various US Air Forces Bases and Coalition Forces participated in these exercises at various times.
USAF F-22 Raptors made their first appearance in the Middle East at the UAEAWC from November until December 10th. Six Raptors and their support unit from the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia performed bilateral training their coalitions partners.
The exercise was designed to bring together Gulf Cooperation Council nations and other countries to strengthen military-to-military relationships, promote regional security, improve combined tactical air operations, and enhance interoperability of forces, equipment and procedures.
During the same period, F-22s participated in bilateral training opportunities with coalition partners. Special feature of this excercise was the participation of PAF F-7PGs along with RJAF F-16A and UAEF F-16E Block-60 and Mirage-2000. PAF F-7PG pilot got the opportunity to practice extensively against the Raptors as well as the Block-60 Vipers.
It was the morale of the PAF pilots, i have described at the start of this article, that they opt to face the Raptor in F-7PG. Though outclassed by the Raptors, they gained alot of appreciation by the Raptor pilots. This describes the morale and the guts of PAF pilots which primarily train to counter the threat posed by Su-30MKI (termed invincible by the Indians).
Source:
Sarmad Hassan Sharif (PAF BLOG)
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