Pakistan Air Force moves into former Islamabad airport

[khail007]

Actually, former Islamabad International Airport was part of the PAF Base - Chaklala. After shifting of IIA to new facility consequently former location merged back to the PAF Base to where it belongs.

 

[airomerix]

PAF gave notice to CAA to vacate the premises in late 90s. Since we had plans to station super 7's at Chakala back in the day.

There is a talk of raising two new squadrons. A fighter squadron at Chakala and a transport squadron at Multan. IF the ongoing deal of C-130H's materialises. The H's will join the 6 squadron and some B's will be moved to Multan/Faisal.

Let's see how things play out.

 

[Army research]

at that time airport was operational sir . that may be something else. where there was civilian traffic i rarely see a fighter jet there

No no , the paf always had their own section at that airport , they're own hardened hangers for fighters and normal ones for c130 and il78s , sometimes a fighter could be seen on the tarmac, I was on a passenger plane and it was a mere 300 metres away, unmistakable

Fighters were also stationed there but always on rotation basis.


Yes F-16 are there also sometimes it can be seen operating from an other base close by.

Kamra

 

[iLION12345_1]

I’ve seen Fighter Jets and more recently PAF transport planes here many times before. Previously one part of it was operated by the PAF. Now since the civilian airlines are gone. The entire airbase belongs to the PAF. The jets ive seen here are F-16s btw.

 

[SQ8]

Yeah What targets are that distance away? Also the refuelers probably wont fly into heavy air defence.

One IL78 can refuel roughly 36 Jf17's with one load. And the PAF has 4 so do the maths.

Only 2 really have the pods working at a time.. two years ago barely one refueling system was operational and they were mostly delegated to transport duties.

 

[Yaseen1]

This airport is vulnerable to terrorist attack due to densely populated area near it so it is better Paf not form base there

 

[khanasifm]

Yeah What targets are that distance away? Also the refuelers probably wont fly into heavy air defence.

One IL78 can refuel roughly 36 Jf17's with one load. And the PAF has 4 so do the maths.

https://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/ilyushin-il-78/


The IL-78 has a total fuel carrying capacity of 110,000kg.

Each jf-17 total internal /external fuel capacity is ~5500 kg

110000/5500 =20

 

[Indus Pakistan]

This airport is vulnerable to terrorist attack due to densely populated area near it so it is better Paf not form base there

I agree. The areas around it is densely populated and all it would take is another terrorist breach and PAF could end up losing planes like what happened in Karachi. This base was built by RAF during the British era and was on the outskirts of the town but since then population has expaned resulting in the airport being surrounded by urban growth.

My suggestion is the entire airport is given over to Naya Pakistan Housing project and low income high 10 storey blocks are built to provide high density modern homes for the poor of Rawalpindi and in particular reduce the congestion in Pindi's lower end neighbourhoods.

Meantime a new airbase is built way to the south, adjacent to the M2 which is secure from terrorist attack. This would be win, win all round. You should NOT have airbases near or in populated areas.

 

[Peaceful Civilian]

I can hear fighter jets flying everyday.

This airport is vulnerable to terrorist attack due to densely populated area near it so it is better Paf not form base there

It is Now, heavily guarded. Huge cemented wall, then layer of fences. Impossible to reach runway..

 

[Keysersoze]

https://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/ilyushin-il-78/


The IL-78 has a total fuel carrying capacity of 110,000kg.

Each jf-17 total internal /external fuel capacity is ~5500 kg

110000/5500 =20

I was going by this bit

The new-generation aircraft (IL-78) is equipped with two removable 18,230l fuel tanks installed in the freight hold affording a transferable load of 85,720kg (188,584lb) with hold tanks and 57,720kg (126,984lb) without hold tanks as compared with the IL-76’s transferable fuel load of 10,000kg. It is also fitted with a fuel jettison system at the wing tips.

 

[Talon]

at that time airport was operational sir . that may be something else. where there was civilian traffic i rarely see a fighter jet there

OPLA

PAF gave notice to CAA to vacate the premises in late 90s. Since we had plans to station super 7's at Chakala back in the day.

There is a talk of raising two new squadrons. A fighter squadron at Chakala and a transport squadron at Multan. IF the ongoing deal of C-130H's materialises. The H's will join the 6 squadron and some B's will be moved to Multan/Faisal.

Let's see how things play out.

Its not wise to share PAFs future plans/deployments on public threads.

 

[tarrar]

Good but the boundaries of old Islamabad airport is a wreck, I hope they fixed it for the sake of security

 

[iLION12345_1]

They’re already working on improving the security. I’ve already seen how much stricter it is since the PAF took over. Patrols. More divider boundaries and sandbags, all that. Pretty well defended. Still could be better.

 

[Haroon Baloch]

Any S2A batteries deployed there?

 

[iLION12345_1]

Any S2A batteries deployed there?

Haven’t been in there after the recent security beef up, definitely weren’t any inside the base before. Or at least none that I saw (in plain sight), They’re probably in there now.