PAF Air Refueling Capability

[x_man]

A couple of Mirages have been modified by PAF to carry out air-air refueling tests. The ground and dry air tests been successful, hopefully when IL-76 ( refuelers) arrive soon, a full fledge capability for the whole fleet will be provided….Few snaps from one of the Mirages…Post some more pics later….

"I am releasing these images under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License (CC-BY-SA)."

 

[wangrong]

more pics ,please

 

[metalfalcon]

Cool Mann. Lets hope this happens soon.

 

[s90]

Good work now just waiting for picture of refueling by our IL-78's

 

[Munir]

my friend X-man,

These are really nice! I hope you moved those pics of the ECM aircraft from your photobucket... You know Blinder. But nice!!!!!

Kind regards,
Munir.

p.s. this Mirage 583 is the official first IFR... I see they removed the nice painting of the mirage rebuild factory etc...

 

[TOPGUN]

Awsome pic's bro thx can't wait to see more and see our tankers!

 

[AstanoshKhan]

A somewhat humble question please. Why PAF needs these refuelers? are we trying to get our aircrafts to reach US and Britain or what?

 

[Munir]

A somewhat humble question please. Why PAF needs these refuelers? are we trying to get our aircrafts to reach US and Britain or what?

There are no stupid questions...

If you want deep strike then you can refuel before or after coming back
You can get more weapons in the air (lower start weight) and then refuel when flying
You can fly longer (e.q. CAP loiter time)
With refueling you stress the aircraft less cause you can get more fuel and weight in the air etc etc

 

[wangrong]

A somewhat humble question please. Why PAF needs these refuelers? are we trying to get our aircrafts to reach US and Britain or what?

it is a good news for india navy

 

[qsaark]

I wonder why the JF-17s are not yet equipped with the refueling probes? I guess JF-17s should have those probes installed by default.

 

[AstanoshKhan]

There are no stupid questions...

If you want deep strike then you can refuel before or after coming back
You can get more weapons in the air (lower start weight) and then refuel when flying
You can fly longer (e.q. CAP loiter time)
With refueling you stress the aircraft less cause you can get more fuel and weight in the air etc etc

Okay, right. But my concern was the distance an aircraft cover during it's attack. A PAF aircraft can easily reach the other end of Indian border, and if he has to do some serious business in indian territory then where this refueling should take place?

 

[x_man]

"I am releasing these images under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License (CC-BY-SA)."

 

[Munir]

I wonder why the JF-17s are not yet equipped with the refueling probes? I guess JF-17s should have those probes installed by default.

The next block will have it. It is something only PAF wanted... So we have to integrate it. There was an application with some IFR firm a year ago so I guess it is settled now.

 

[muse]

X=man, Munir


Is the probe to be retractable?

 

[mean_bird]

Okay, right. But my concern was the distance an aircraft cover during it's attack. A PAF aircraft can easily reach the other end of Indian border, and if he has to do some serious business in indian territory then where this refueling should take place?

As munir said, with air-to-air refulling you can keep your fighter in the air for longer period of time even when it is patrolling along its own borders (ie. within pakistan).

Secondly, it stresses the aircraft more if you take off with maximum load. So you take off with lesser load and refuel in the air and if you take off and land multiple times. Remember also that you use after burners while taking off, thereby burning much more fuel than just flying in the air without A/B.

Lastly, the airplanes are not based on the border. You take off from a farther away base, refuel in your own territory before going for a strike mission in enemy territory. Similar is the case for maritime role.