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PAF ready to thwart Indian designs: air chief

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PAF ready to thwart Indian designs: air chief


Sunday, March 28, 2010



ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has made it emphatically clear that it is fully capable of responding to the so-called Indian ‘Cold Start Doctrine’ befittingly.

If the Indians opt to drop a few bombs close to the areas with the borders, the response would be even harsher and forthcoming in no time. The Indian doctrine is ridiculous. “Pakistan has put all the required preparations in place to meet any eventuality. The aggressor could not even think of what the reply would be from Pakistan. The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has kept its assets for thwarting conventional threats from the force devoted to deal with the terrorists.”

The announcement came from Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman at the Air Headquarters here on Saturday while replying to queries of newsmen during his briefing pertaining to the ongoing air exercise, High Mark-2010.

The air chief, in his about two-hour-long formal and informal briefing, told the media that preparedness and maintaining potential to frustrate any aggression was the right of every country that wished to live with dignity and honour.

The air chief, who was in high spirits and replied a volley of questions about the external threats from air, said any surgical strike by India would not go unanswered as the reaction time for both the countries in an air action was so short that in peace times, such activities could not be checked in a definite manner.

The air chief, who took part in the exercise by flying a French-made Mirage plane, would be flying the multi-role most sophisticated US-made F-16 in a day or two while taking part in ‘operation’.

He told the media that the US had agreed to provide another 14 F-16 fighter planes to Pakistan. These block-52 planes would be apart from the other 18 planes of the same calibre that would start reaching Pakistan from July this year and supply of the batch would be completed in December next. The planes will be equipped with the video and voice recorder (VVR) system rarely provided by the US to other countries, which is a high-resolution cockpit system that places a record of the HUD video, head-down displays, pilot voice and digital data bus information on a TEAC recorder.

With this, the number of the F-16 planes, being received from the US till the end of the year, would reach 30, besides the upgrading of the existing planes, acquired in the 1980s. He said the PAF was capable of thwarting both the conventional and unconventional threats from the enemy. He said Pakistan’s missile system was in the best shape and “our all the systems are well tested.”

The air chief said the PAF was focusing on its preparedness and taking stock of its preparations according to the modern trends. The area of the ongoing exercise is covering the entire country, from Skardu in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south. It included joint cooperation, with an extensive participation from the Army and the Navy, which would further enhance the joint operations, integration and cooperation amongst the three services.

The High Mark-2010 is aimed at conducting an operation in the near-realistic tactical environment while integrating the new inductions and providing a role-oriented training to combat and support elements of the PAF. The exercise is designed to achieve stipulated objectives, with a special emphasis on exposing the PAF combat crew to stimulated air battles, based on contemporary concepts. The air chief said all the main operating bases and forward operating bases were participating in the exercise.

New inductions like the JF-17 Thunder aircraft, jointly manufactured by Pakistan and China, force multipliers such as Saab-2000 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft and air-to-air refueler aircraft are participating in the exercise for the first time. The exercise in question is the PAF’s biggest operational event, which is being conducted after five years.

The air chief said the ever-changing geo-political environment in the region demanded a change in the employment concepts and doctrine in the application of air power, with an emphasis on joint operations. The exercise High Mark-2010 would provide the PAF an opportunity to validate these concepts, which are vital for the overall defence of the motherland, he said.

Answering a question, Rao Qamar Suleman said Pakistan was cognisant of the Indian designs and war preparedness, as it was acquiring the weapon system from all over the world. The air chief said the PAF had developed its own drones and they were being manufactured in the Kamra facility.

Pakistan is not interested in buying the US drones, but it is keen to purchase sensors for its own drones. The US has not provided its drone technology to any country of the world, except Italy, where they are also operated by the US technicians.

The air chief parried a query about the flight base of the US drones, targeting the tribal areas, and said the Americans returned the control of Shahbaz and Pasni bases back in 2002. No PAF base is in the control of the US forces, he maintained.

He expressed his ignorance over the control of the Shamsi base and said it was neither being used by the PAF, nor the Pakistan Army. The base does not belong to the PAF. “I don’t know about the control of the Shamsi base,” he said while replying to a question about its control and its use by the Americans for the flight of drones.

The newsmen were also shown the most modern central security system in place, linked to all the facilities. It is controlled and monitored at a central base on a round-the-clock basis. The PAF has also acquired the US-made road scanners, which could easily detect any bypassing vehicle with weapons or ammunition. The system is working well and efficiently, as the security threat perception has increased for the PAF installations in the wake of use of air power against the militants in the areas adjoined to the border with Afghanistan.

PAF ready to thwart Indian designs: air chief
 
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