Spot on, for decades, the policy is to bury the head in the sand and pretend "Saab Theek hai". As a result we have extended our tolerance level such that on 26th when IAF even have attacked area in International borders of Pakistan, not just Azad Kashmir, they still think it was nothing and PA has acted wisely to not shoot down IAF fighters on 26th. Basically they have already set the precedence that India can bomb us when it likes, we will not even shot their jets in case it gets angry and start war. Cowardice at its best.
The Eagle, just tell me please, is it OK for the Indian's IAF to bomb Pakistan inside the international borders whenever its like and IAF flown back without any retaliation on that night!! Is this the strategy that we are tolerant to the attacks and wouldn't even issue orders to our pilots to shoot down IAF fighters!!
I am told that was the policy implemented by high ups. Is this true!! If it is what happened to their resolve to protect Pakistan at all costs!!
1) Based on the type of comments you are making it appears you are neglecting or are not aware of the basics of air combat.
2) You can not build a barrier in air that prevents someone from entering it. Now you can cover every inch of airspace with some weapon that if somebody enters you can fire on them. Defending airspace is not same thing as defending you house or a post or land border.
3) So lets see what happened on Feb 26th:
3-i) Based on media reports we know Indian Aircraft came in by
4-5 Nautical Miles(that's around
10 Km). Dropped Spice-2000 Bombs(around
60 Km range) and exited.
10 Km at around
1000 Km/h takes around
30-40 sec to cover.
1000 Km/h is roughly
0.8 Mach, most fighters can easily fly faster.
3-ii) Spice-2000 has a reported range of
60 Km(roughly the distance of Balakot from LOC). The actual range(generally less then reported range) would depend on speed of flying aircraft and its altitude above ground level. Because eventually Spice-2000 bombs glides to their target, so speed and altitude of launching aircraft determine how far it can go.
If you release Spice-2000 early it would not have enough flight time to make it to its target. Note: target was in a mountainous region well above the see level and on a mountain top.
3-iii) There were multiple diversionary IAF formations coming close to Pakistan Airspace at the same time at different locations along the border.
3-iv) So PAF would have directed its CAPs(already in air) to deal with some of the 3 x IAF formations while remaining would have been dealt with using formations(on 3 min alert) that took off from nearby airbases.
3-v) PAF formations would have locked-on to intruders. This would alerted intruders as well. After locking and before you can fire you have to wait for 2 things:
3-v-a) Target comes in effective firing range. Effective range(20-60 Km) of BVR missiles is well below their max range(around 100 Km). And this varies depending on position of interceptor relative to intruder e.g. if interception is head-on or chase-mode. So as a intruder I also know this, so I can press-on a bit, then turn my tail towards interceptor and exit(and this is what happened on Feb 26).
3-v-b) Rules of engagement.
3-vi) On night of Feb 26, either both or at least 1 of the conditions was not met;
BUT under time-pressure from approaching PAF interceptors IAF released payload before reaching optimal range and exited OR as DG ISPR put it
pre-maturely. Now how I come to conclusion that payload was released prematurely. We know the bombs fell short of their target. Now I would not expect Israeli kit to be that unreliable that all 4 of them could not hit their target even if they were solely relying on GPS/INS. Only one thing explains this, an early release not leaving enough flight-time for them to make it to their target and what would cause IAF to make this mistake? Possibly only time-pressure from approaching interceptors.
3-vii) Pilots in the interceptors or controllers at AHQ would not have know if any payload was released or not. So it did not make sense for them to keep chasing IAF into IOK.
3-viii) It would have been later through reports from local police/army units that it would have been established that something was actually dropped.
3-ix) So it was natural to establish first what was hit (if anything) and what is extent of damage. Because this would determine what targets PAF would hit.
3-x) PAF follow-up was more than sufficient and very next day in broad day-light. For few pine trees we hit grounds/empty spaces around their military installation and shot down 2 of their fighter jets.
If you are still not satisfied; I would advise you instead of writing mere rhetoric, write something more concrete. Like what do you suggest PAF should have done instead of what it did. Discussing the technical means to do it and Indian Reaction etc.
