Ali_Baba
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It did a lot and did indeed achieve its full potential for what it has been provided with. The country is safer because of its presence in the region.
1 - The original business case for the F16s was about 110 fighters and the infrastructure was setup to support that many - but PAF is now stuck at a little over 70 odd. So - alot of wasted time/effort/money in infrastructure to support a larger fleet than what PAF has ..
2 - The F16s spent a large portion of their life under sanctions with limited spare parts supplies which comprimised their actual military value during those sanctions. Parts were begged/borrowed and Kaiser has been clear in his commentary of the 2001 standoff with India, there wasn't enough spare parts to keep up the temp of operations.
3 - They just about got a MLU upgrade to take them to Block 50 standards when the 18 Block 52's were bought.
4 - There is no possibility of upgrading to V standard/AESA radars for the last 1/3 of their life.
5 - The Block 52+ were never allowed to be sold with DRFM jamming.
6 - No AIM-9X were sold - even though they got the Helmet that would have allowed them to be used.
7 - No real possibility of purchasing new F16s ..
8 - No possibility of even 2nd hard F16s to get to the original number of 110 that PAF planned.
I am sure others on this forum can highlight more reasons than what i have listed above... but it should give you a taste of why I dont think the F16 platform has been "allowed to achieve its full potential.".
Yes - the country is safer with the current fleet than not having it - but that is different to saying the acquisition of the F16s have fullfiled the original plans the PAF had and then allowed the full potential of what the platform should have been able to offer had it kept pace with the growth of the platform else where interms of capbility growth and upgrades.
The F16 fleet in the PAF will now wither away, decay and die prematurely as it will not be "allowed" to keep pace with the overall developments and enhancements of the F16 platform being made by the manufacturer.
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