Pakistan to Exercise Options for More F-16s Published: 15 Jul 2011 1

sathya

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ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is in the final stages of exercising an option to buy 18 more F-16 Block 52+ fighters, which would double its fleet of the Fighting Falcon's advanced variant, said Haris Khan of the Pakistan Military Consortium think tank.

Deliveries of the 18 "Peace Drive I" planes, currently Pakistan's most capable aircraft, were completed in December under a 2006 contract. The contract, including the 18-plane option, was then valued at $3 billion.

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A planned upgrade to F-16A/B Block 15 aircraft will bring them up to the Block 40 standard as well. They are currently being put through the Falcon STAR (Structural Augmentation Roadmap) program, and undergoing Mid-Life Update (MLU) at the hands of Turkish Aerospace Industries in Turkey.

In 2006, the value of 60 MLU kits was quoted as $1.3 billion. The upgrade was approved for 45 Block 15s, and now has been curtailed at 35 planes, Khan said.

The reason for this is uncertain.

Khan notes that U.S. Navy has refused to release 14 ex-Pakistani F-16s that were part of the "Peace Gate III/IV" order of 71 planes. These aircraft were embargoed before delivery under the Pressler Amendment in the 1990s and eventually found a home with the Navy's aggressor units.

The news of curtailment in the F-16 upgrade program comes a week after it was reported the upgraded aircraft will be equipped with the ITT Systems AN/ALQ-211 (v)9 Advanced Integrated Defensive Electronic Warfare Suite (AIDEWS) electronic warfare pod.

The $49,097,182 firm fixed price Foreign Military Sales contract will provide systems software and support equipment 18 pods, four pod shells, two antenna coupler sets, two lab test benches, and data.

There may also be new equipment for the Pakistan Navy.

Khan said there was no news as of yet on acquiring additional pair of P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft to replace those destroyed in the May 22 terrorist attack on PNS Mehran in Karachi.

However, there was a very strong possibility another Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate would be transferred to Pakistan when it was retired from USN service later this year.
 

Yusuf

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And where exactly is the money going to come from and will the US sell even if they did get the money?
 

JayATL

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This is a joke and any country that accepts it ( besides pakistan)would be embrassed because of all the restrictive clauses in it...

(i) the PAF can only base them in one airbase, Jacobabad; (ii) they cannot be used for offensive operations beyond Pakistan's borders; (iii) some sort of monitoring mechanisms will be put in place to monitor the location of each aircraft and (iv) PAF cannot take them outside Pakistan without the permission of the US.
 

Yusuf

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This is a joke and any country that accepts it ( besides pakistan)would be embrassed because of all the restrictive clauses in it...

(i) the PAF can only base them in one airbase, Jacobabad; (ii) they cannot be used for offensive operations beyond Pakistan's borders; (iii) some sort of monitoring mechanisms will be put in place to monitor the location of each aircraft and (iv) PAF cannot take them outside Pakistan without the permission of the US.
A link to this will help mate.
 

thakur_ritesh

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And where exactly is the money going to come from and will the US sell even if they did get the money?
money will come from the reimbursements that paks apply for under the WoT.

US will supply provided the paks go to NW and also allow some sort of boots on ground for the US forces. for now even those 2 p3 orions have been put on hold and the conditions are, those will only be released only when the US sees some sort of progress on ground and the release will happen not all in one go but just one by one seeing how well pakistan is sticking to the commitments made, which is to say the first p3 will be released only after pakistan has tuck to commitments made, which will then be reviewed and once released the second one will be released based on further progress made based on commitments made.

paks have been literally forced on the knees and i would imagine US will be making some sort of commitment to us in india that none of the above equipment will be targeted against india, though that claim remains highly questionable.
 

thakur_ritesh

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This was expected after MRCA choices.
LF,

can we make it sound as simplified, i doubt, and this i suspect would still be the case if mmrca would have had an american plane and lets not forget there is much more mil equipment we will be sourcing from the US over the years which will run into 10s of billions of dollars, and just the c17 deal alone has it in it to triumph the mmrca in value terms over the years, the estimate for now is 24 (around 10b usd) planes with an upward trend.

more importantly, today US is confronted with a situation where there is a pakistan which is ever so growing hostile to US interests and not just pakistan the country but the military as well which is upto tantrums every now and then under public pressure (more of a ploy than the reality), but for now they have been pretty much reigned in but that doesnt mean the very same people once there is a significant draw down of the US forces from a'stan will remain as pro to the US interests, so i am very sure US is not as short sighted and they have he things worked out well, let us not forget in a worst case scenario some fanatics in pak could well use these assets against the US as well and not just india.

we can reasonably be sure, all this equipment to be handed over will at some stage and to some extent be manned by the US personnel.

there remains another very important aspect and that is, pakistan has been held by the neck in economic terms and there is no way they can be out of this mess without the US help and the message from china is clear, they will not be filling up the void completely and they shouldnt expect so, and so we have seen a reaction from pak mil to their politicians to the terror elements all suggesting the working out of economy.

Yusuf,

what jay is saying should'nt be further from truth but to what extent can the americans force their way through and for how long remains questionable but this also means that the americans over a period of time will have a significant say on what we will be doing in the region and not. its a smart ploy the americans have played here.
 

sayareakd

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Good news for Pakistan, hope Talibs are taking note of it and do PNS Mehran on it. Then GOP will cry for more F16 to replace destroyed plane, this cycle will run US Military Industrial complex, who in turn finance US Presidential election through donations:confused:
 
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pankaj nema

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Americans are not so stupid

Just because Pakistanis want F16 does not mean that USA is obliging them
Pak US relations are in very bad shape and there is a lot of tension between the two countries

It is about Pakistan's double game of both showing to be fighting and in reality supporting Al qaeda and Taliban

US is going to be very stingy with even cash handouts

So more F 16 are a distant dream rather a fantasy

Pakistanis will be lucky to get P3 C orions to replace those that were destroyed

Unless and until Pakistanis do each and everything that US wants F 16 are not coming
 
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This is why lockheed martin has not been able to be successful in the Indian market.
 

arya

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well no doubt that will increase paf , but the question is

when we will induct MMRCA
when we will induct lca
when we will induct pakfa

every thing is on paper not on ground reality guys a very big problem we are going to face .

forget pakistan just for one minutes talk about china , how much we are ready .

i personally fell with in one year we has to face two front and that my personal feeling may be i am 99% wrong but what is 1% come true
 
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These planes you mentioned will not be ready in 1 year. We need to focus on air defense in the meanwhile.
 

arya

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These planes you mentioned will not be ready in 1 year. We need to focus on air defense in the meanwhile.
yes thats my question if 1% war take place then how much we are ready

what we need , dont you think we should focus time frame

we should work in that way so that we will be ready for any worst condition

how much time our force will take to reach both front , how much ammunition, weapons , fighter planes we need for both front

how much we are ready ?? dont you think we need some dreal so that we should know what is our real score against worst condition
 
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No country is 100% ready but if we are presented in this situation take comfort in the fact that Israel,USA,Russia and France will be able to rush deliver things, as far as air defense goes IMO we are more than 90% ready.
 

arya

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No country is 100% ready but if we are presented in this situation take comfort in the fact that Israel,USA,Russia and France will be able to rush deliver things, as far as air defense goes IMO we are more than 90% ready.
let suppose tomorrow morning i mean as example they open two front against india then how much time we will have do you think china will give india time so that other countries can help us i doubt on russia, france but yes israel and usa will try to help against china

but basic question is how much we are ready how much we need ??

why not we prepare our self in time frame condition

china and pakistan will first use there missile to destroy our bases and there fighter will start to attack from all side but the question is how will bd or nepal, sl will react

i know its a bad dream but what if dream come true . the question is how much we are ready
 
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How will Pakistan and China penetrate Indian airspace?? get past Phalcon AWAC?? Closest Chinese airbase is more than 1000km away from India. If BD and SL want to get involved against India then India should go to the nuclear option.

 

arya

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How will Pakistan and China penetrate Indian airspace?? get past Phalcon AWAC?? Closest Chinese airbase is more than 1000km away from India. If BD and SL want to get involved against India then Indian should go to the nuclear option.

that right but do you think they dont have any plans for AWAC well i am just talking about a equation in which these two country open a war against india

what they fist use figher planes , missiles ??

what will be fisrt target our airbases, our asset,

how will bd, sl, nepal will react ??

how will france, russia, uk will react ?? i have no doubt on usa or Israel

how much will be our response time ?? and many more
 
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that right but do you think they dont have any plans for AWAC well i am just talking about a equation in which these two country open a war against india

what they fist use figher planes , missiles ??

what will be fisrt target our airbases, our asset,

how will bd, sl, nepal will react ??

how will france, russia, uk will react ?? i have no doubt on usa or Israel

how much will be our response time ?? and many more
Is this strictly an air war you are worried about?? Like I said from the air defense side we are probably better prepared than other areas. Usually air power is used with ground advances. Will two separate countries be coordinated enough to work in sync in ground and air?? Doubtful. The terrain makes it also difficult to coordinate air and ground from the Eastern side.

If fighter planes are used first they have to penetrate air space and both sides have to be successful timing it perfectly-again doubtful.

If missiles are used they will be IRBM's by the Chinese and Cruise missiles by the Pakistanis. Chinese may try for minimal civilian casualty while Pakistan may try for maximum civilian causalties. Again this is a lack of coordination and these will have to get past AWACS,BMD and SAMS. Again the missile use policy is different. The use of IRBM's by China will also escalate the Indian response.

Our assets also have their own defenses SAMS etc

What did BD,SL,Nepal do 5 other times?? Why even worry??

what will P5 do in a world war scenario?? Most importantly what will USA do??

The response time would be the time it takes for cold start to be put in effect. It will be harder for Chinese to make ground advances than Pakistan on ground focus more towards Pakistan in air side focus more on China.
 

Yusuf

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money will come from the reimbursements that paks apply for under the WoT.
.
Not sure yet if those reimbursements will come or not. If at all, then what strings attached. May be nothing would be left or allowed to leave for arms against India.
 

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