During the wars of 1965 and 1971 PAF though outnumbered gave a bloody nose to its numerically superior enemy. The feat bestowed by a handful of our professionals left a scar on the ego of our giant neighbour for many decades to come. In 1979 ACM Anwar Shamin initiated the Project Falcon to evaluate,negotiate and procure the F16s from the US. This news came as a BOMBSHELL for the Indians.Never in the history of mankind a neighbour manifolds bigger in size and strength Whined,moaned,cried and begged to stop these machines to be delivered to PAF from day one. The irony is that this saga still continues with full whimper as we speak.
Guilty of her role in the East Pakistan fiasco,Indira Gandhi was the first Indian leader to start a never ending crusade against the F16s. She made countless pleas to the US,from that time the Indian caucus in the US Congress led by Stephen Solarz was fully active. The US initially refused to sell the F16s and offered us F5Es,F20s and even A7 Corsairs. Sighting our indispensability in the Afghan theater they offered PAF a scale down version of F16 with a J79 engine.
PAF strongly opposed this offer and requested F16 block 15 with an
F100-PW-200 engine.
Finally US relented and a letter of agreement for up to 28 F-16A and 12 F-16B was signed December 1981,with delivery scheduled for January 1983.The first F-16 arriving at PAF Base Mushaff on 15 January 1983 was flown by Squadron Leader Shahid Javed.
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On the first delivery the paranoia and hysteria exhibited by India was unimaginable. Indira Gandhi was running around the globe like a headless chicken. In the end to counter our 40 F16s India ended up buying 400 aircrafts of numerous origins. From Mirage 2000s,jaguars,Mig 23/25/27s,Harriers and others.Below Indira Gandhi meeting with French President Francois Mitterrand for Mirage 2000s.
In the late eighties PAF requested another 60 F16s under peace gate 3,eleven were built by 1990. This time India succeeded in lobbying,the
Pressler amendment was passed the U.S. placed sanctions and an arms embargo on Pakistan on 6 October 1990 due to the country's continued nuclear weapons programme.All eleven
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.
The time between 1987 to 2005 PAF was deprived of the F16s, during this period IAF procured further high tech aircrafts including the Su30 MKIs and Mig 29s in big numbers to counter the PAFs dwindling F16s. In 2001 the war on terror came as a blessing in disguise from 2006 the US started supplying us 14 F16s under EDA with further 18 block 52s under peace drive 1 along with some Jordanian F16s.
Naturally the Indians opposed the deal vehemently again,even with PAF operating only a handful of high tech aircrafts ,the Indian sense of inferiority complex was prevalent in every nook and corner of the capitol Hill. Nevertheless PAF also managed to upgrade its ageing fleet courtesy uncle Sam.
Boisterous with its numerical and technical superiority the enemy tried to challenge our professionals again, but ended up being humiliated as usual.
For just one aircraft (F16) the Indians tried every trick in their bag,from obstructing to purchasing every possible high tech aircraft available in the world. So far their Mirages,MIGs,Jaguars,Sukhois and others have all failed to subdue our KNIGHTS.Their last hope and prayers are resting on the RAFALEs.
Judging by the history it is not difficult to conclude who will emerge VICTORIOUS again.
