BATMAN
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2007
- Messages
- 29,895
- Reaction score
- -28
- Country
- Location
PAF journey to excellence
Group Captain Tariq Mahmood
Aug 14 bears high importance among the Muslims of the Sub-continent especially while all around the world in general. It was the day when Allah Almighty bestowed them with Pakistan in 1947. At the time of its came into being, the Muslims of this region had the biggest challenge to accumulate the meager resources to run a newly born state on the globe. The father of the nation Muhammad Ali Jinnah who's day in and day out efforts had borne fruits was keen to put the country on the rail of development and the defense of the country was on his top of the priority agenda. Quaid-e-Azam whenever got time he used to visit various units and establishments in the defense sector. Rather he always spared time out of his pressing engagements to visit the units of the defense forces of the country. At the time of independence, the defense sector, like others in the country was not in shape so as the situation was with the Air Force of the Country, which was named as Royal Air Force of Pakistan, having total manpower of 2232. They belonged to various sections and services of the Royal Indian Air Force and had reached here after rendering countless sacrifices. This small number of men and officers are the real pioneers of the toady's strong and potent Air Force. They not only paved way to achieve this goal but also provided a strong pedestal to the pilots to fly the most modern and high-tech aircraft in the third generation - F-16 (Fighting Falcon) and JF-17 (Thunder). They are the real heroes of the nation who produced the talented and brave lot of pilots like, Sarfraz Rafiqui, Younas, M M Alam, Allauddin, Rashid Minhas and Munir.
The country when came into being had 122 aircraft of different makes including 32 Dakotas, 35 Tempests, 29 Harwards, 16 Tiger Moth, three Aster 5s, and seven Aaster6s which were the flying assets of three Station Headquarters each at Risalpur, Chaklala and Kohat. In addition to these, there was one flight squadron and another for aircraft depot besides a Provost flight. These all the aircraft had undertaken a lot of sorties during the World War II.
Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who had closely monitored the performances of the air forces in World War-II, addressing the students of Aligarh University back in 1941 stated that the future wars would be fought by the air forces thus air power has assumed high importance. He soon after independence on April 13, 1948 paid visit to air force's training Academy at Risalpur. Addressing the cadets he said " A country without a strong Air Force is at the mercy of any aggressor. Pakistan must build up her Air Force as quickly as possible. It must be an efficient Air Force, second to none." This address of the Father of the Nation had given impetus to the determination and commitment of the country's air force and all the successive Air Chiefs took this as a beacon of light for them to achieve progress and development. The leadership of the air force had always a firm belief that despite restrained resources attainment of best training is the only way to bail out from the confronting challenges.
On March 23, 1956 bears vital importance when Royal Pakistan Air Force was renamed as Pakistan Air Force subsequently giving confidence to the men in the force but the whole of the nation. Now it was the great challenge to the PAF to replace the aging air fleet with the modern aircraft. Due to financial constraints the PAF had left no choice but to get 100 US made F-86 Saber aircraft in early 1957. On March 23, 1957 the pilots of PAF showcased a spectacular air show of 64 freshly imported aircraft. This show was not only a display of attainment of craftsmanship of the pilots but also of the engineers and technicians of the PAF who maintained the ever highest standard of expertise while presenting such a daring and undaunting air show. This year also is significant in the history of PAF with the fact that in July Air Marshal Noor Khan had taken over as first Commander-in-Chief of PAF. He developed the PAF on modern lines which in 1965 war was displayed when the air force of the much bigger adversary, in size and number, had completely crippled. PAF with a meager number of aircraft had struck down 129 aircraft of India . At that time PAF had 148 aircraft while India owned 532 fighter jets. PAF's 22 bombers carried out 167 successful sorties while subsequently 60 Indian fighter jets could carry out 92 flights. The falcons of Pakistan Air Force not only forced the enemy to repent but also wrote new chapters in the history of world Air Force.
Seeing the spectacular performances of the PAF fighters USA put sanctions on both the countries and supply of arms and ammunitions were put under ban. These sanctions did not cause any harm to India which had been relying mostly on the supplies from the then USSR but it was a punch for Pakistan . Later, due to the acumen and farsightedness of the leadership of the country these sanctions proved to be "blessings in the disguise" as new vistas were explored to get the supplies to maintain the level of country's defense. The role of Pakistan 's evergreen and deep rooted friend - China - is always forthcoming which allowed purchase of aircraft like F-6, A-5, and F-7P. This purchase deal not only helped the country to strengthen its defense sector but also give an impetus to attain self-reliance.
Group Captain Tariq Mahmood
Aug 14 bears high importance among the Muslims of the Sub-continent especially while all around the world in general. It was the day when Allah Almighty bestowed them with Pakistan in 1947. At the time of its came into being, the Muslims of this region had the biggest challenge to accumulate the meager resources to run a newly born state on the globe. The father of the nation Muhammad Ali Jinnah who's day in and day out efforts had borne fruits was keen to put the country on the rail of development and the defense of the country was on his top of the priority agenda. Quaid-e-Azam whenever got time he used to visit various units and establishments in the defense sector. Rather he always spared time out of his pressing engagements to visit the units of the defense forces of the country. At the time of independence, the defense sector, like others in the country was not in shape so as the situation was with the Air Force of the Country, which was named as Royal Air Force of Pakistan, having total manpower of 2232. They belonged to various sections and services of the Royal Indian Air Force and had reached here after rendering countless sacrifices. This small number of men and officers are the real pioneers of the toady's strong and potent Air Force. They not only paved way to achieve this goal but also provided a strong pedestal to the pilots to fly the most modern and high-tech aircraft in the third generation - F-16 (Fighting Falcon) and JF-17 (Thunder). They are the real heroes of the nation who produced the talented and brave lot of pilots like, Sarfraz Rafiqui, Younas, M M Alam, Allauddin, Rashid Minhas and Munir.
The country when came into being had 122 aircraft of different makes including 32 Dakotas, 35 Tempests, 29 Harwards, 16 Tiger Moth, three Aster 5s, and seven Aaster6s which were the flying assets of three Station Headquarters each at Risalpur, Chaklala and Kohat. In addition to these, there was one flight squadron and another for aircraft depot besides a Provost flight. These all the aircraft had undertaken a lot of sorties during the World War II.
Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who had closely monitored the performances of the air forces in World War-II, addressing the students of Aligarh University back in 1941 stated that the future wars would be fought by the air forces thus air power has assumed high importance. He soon after independence on April 13, 1948 paid visit to air force's training Academy at Risalpur. Addressing the cadets he said " A country without a strong Air Force is at the mercy of any aggressor. Pakistan must build up her Air Force as quickly as possible. It must be an efficient Air Force, second to none." This address of the Father of the Nation had given impetus to the determination and commitment of the country's air force and all the successive Air Chiefs took this as a beacon of light for them to achieve progress and development. The leadership of the air force had always a firm belief that despite restrained resources attainment of best training is the only way to bail out from the confronting challenges.
On March 23, 1956 bears vital importance when Royal Pakistan Air Force was renamed as Pakistan Air Force subsequently giving confidence to the men in the force but the whole of the nation. Now it was the great challenge to the PAF to replace the aging air fleet with the modern aircraft. Due to financial constraints the PAF had left no choice but to get 100 US made F-86 Saber aircraft in early 1957. On March 23, 1957 the pilots of PAF showcased a spectacular air show of 64 freshly imported aircraft. This show was not only a display of attainment of craftsmanship of the pilots but also of the engineers and technicians of the PAF who maintained the ever highest standard of expertise while presenting such a daring and undaunting air show. This year also is significant in the history of PAF with the fact that in July Air Marshal Noor Khan had taken over as first Commander-in-Chief of PAF. He developed the PAF on modern lines which in 1965 war was displayed when the air force of the much bigger adversary, in size and number, had completely crippled. PAF with a meager number of aircraft had struck down 129 aircraft of India . At that time PAF had 148 aircraft while India owned 532 fighter jets. PAF's 22 bombers carried out 167 successful sorties while subsequently 60 Indian fighter jets could carry out 92 flights. The falcons of Pakistan Air Force not only forced the enemy to repent but also wrote new chapters in the history of world Air Force.
Seeing the spectacular performances of the PAF fighters USA put sanctions on both the countries and supply of arms and ammunitions were put under ban. These sanctions did not cause any harm to India which had been relying mostly on the supplies from the then USSR but it was a punch for Pakistan . Later, due to the acumen and farsightedness of the leadership of the country these sanctions proved to be "blessings in the disguise" as new vistas were explored to get the supplies to maintain the level of country's defense. The role of Pakistan 's evergreen and deep rooted friend - China - is always forthcoming which allowed purchase of aircraft like F-6, A-5, and F-7P. This purchase deal not only helped the country to strengthen its defense sector but also give an impetus to attain self-reliance.
