From time to time certain planes become obsolete from commercial sales prespective but these are still viable platforms. So it makes sense for PAF to purchase the licence production of such assets , which still would serve cause for single airforce or Army
- Saab often retires certain production lines
- F16 production line retirement is a talk of last few years
- Similarly at one point France also retired their Mirage 2000 line
- Bombardier operates lot of small jets , anyone of them can be converted into a nice recon platform / marine role
- China bought few Helicopter prototypes from Europe for Licence production
The fact they become obsolete is from prespective of large scale sale but for custom sales to one customer they may still serve a purpose
Here is Bombardier , Global 5000 Business Jet , can certainly serve role as Recon plane
or Marine Surveilance role
Three different size
First one can be a AWAC platform / Marine Survailence role
Second /Third can be Transprt recon planes, might even play EW role
We have to look beyond what we bought from USA in past