People should remember the fact that the PAF’s front-line fighter is the F-16 - designed in the 1970s.
MISSISSAUGA, ON, CANADA: This is with reference to Ejaz Haider’s article of December 4 titled “Using the PAF”. The PAF, perhaps, might be able to hold its own against the IAF (Indian Air Force) but is no match for the USAF (United States Air Force) in any way, be it vis-à-vis technology or tactics. People should remember the fact that the PAF’s front-line fighter is the F-16. Whatever the configuration or block number, it was designed in the 1970s and the US Air Force has planes at its disposal that are a generation newer and far superior.
Here is some more food for thought. Can the PAF guarantee that its US-manufactured planes cannot be remotely disabled? Or that the much-vaunted air defence system using primarily TPS70 radar, is protected against jamming?
Unless and until a country invents and manufactures these things itself, it is in no position to take on a vastly superior force head on. Guerrilla warfare, of course, is another matter.
A Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2011.
