Pakistan and Air Defense doctrine

[Falcon26]

Below are some excerpts from the famous book Fiza'ya: Psyche of the Pakistan Air Force by Pushpindar Singh and Ravi Rikhye. I would appreciate comments by @Bilal Khan (Quwa) @denel and others; especially in light of India’s destruction of its own helicopter and crew following PAF air superiority missions over Indian airspace on February 27th

 

[pakpride00090]

Below are some excerpts from the famous book Fiza'ya: Psyche of the Pakistan Air Force by Pushpindar Singh and Ravi Rikhye. I would appreciate comments by @Bilal Khan (Quwa) @denel and others; especially in light of India’s destruction of its own helicopter and crew following PAF air superiority missions over Indian airspace on February 27th

Nice share..

 

[Quwa]

Below are some excerpts from the famous book Fiza'ya: Psyche of the Pakistan Air Force by Pushpindar Singh and Ravi Rikhye. I would appreciate comments by @Bilal Khan (Quwa) @denel and others; especially in light of India’s destruction of its own helicopter and crew following PAF air superiority missions over Indian airspace on February 27th

The inhibition has generally been cost, and with limited resources, the PAF preferred new fighters.

However, unlike prior decades, the PAF now has a low-cost fighter that can drive new technology and capability inductions (e.g. JF-17 Block 3 and AESA radars). So, it could have a bit more room to look at SAMs. But since these are also costly, especially if you're trying to go for full coverage, I think it ought to pursue a domestic program or joint-venture.

To me, the South Africans are a solid bet via the Marlin, Umkhonto, and Cheetah series.

We can co-develop those solutions and then induct them gradually via blocks. Unfortunately, both the Army and Air Force fast tracked their SAMs, I think we spent nearly a $1bn on HQ-16 and Spadas, i.e. SARH based SAMs. And I think the Navy will spend $250 or so on its SAMs.

I wish we had actually earmarked $500 m for joint development and tried generating savings via localized production of the Umkhonto (and, later Marlin SAM).

That aside, we haven't settled on a long-range SAM (at least the PAF hasn't). I hope (with Azm and all) it looks at partnering with Turkey on the Hisar-U or SIPER rather than import something.

OTOH, the HQ-9 might be a natural fit for the Army as it's really familiar with Chinese SAMs, and I assume the HQ-9 will interoperate with the HQ-16 well.

But the PAF should think clean sheet, perhaps a next gen replacement for the Spada post-2030, and working with South Africa and/or Turkey is the way forward. Heck, maybe Ukraine too.

 

[denel]

The inhibition has generally been cost, and with limited resources, the PAF preferred new fighters.

However, unlike prior decades, the PAF now has a low-cost fighter that can drive new technology and capability inductions (e.g. JF-17 Block 3 and AESA radars). So, it could have a bit more room to look at SAMs. But since these are also costly, especially if you're trying to go for full coverage, I think it ought to pursue a domestic program or joint-venture.

To me, the South Africans are a solid bet via the Marlin, Umkhonto, and Cheetah series.

We can co-develop those solutions and then induct them gradually via blocks. Unfortunately, both the Army and Air Force fast tracked their SAMs, I think we spent nearly a $1bn on HQ-16 and Spadas, i.e. SARH based SAMs. And I think the Navy will spend $250 or so on its SAMs.

I wish we had actually earmarked $500 m for joint development and tried generating savings via localized production of the Umkhonto (and, later Marlin SAM).

That aside, we haven't settled on a long-range SAM (at least the PAF hasn't). I hope (with Azm and all) it looks at partnering with Turkey on the Hisar-U or SIPER rather than import something.

OTOH, the HQ-9 might be a natural fit for the Army as it's really familiar with Chinese SAMs, and I assume the HQ-9 will interoperate with the HQ-16 well.

But the PAF should think clean sheet, perhaps a next gen replacement for the Spada post-2030, and working with South Africa and/or Turkey is the way forward. Heck, maybe Ukraine too.

Absolutely well said - one thing which is not noted about either A-darter or Marlin are newer features to defeat localisation within SPECTRA or other threat awareness systems.

Given now the complete centralisation depots from large scale M3/5 - most logical step is to move towards a Cheetah type platform.