"If they overcome it they will wax the floor with the PAF after day 2 of an air war."It all depends on leadership and how they percolate values downstream. They do have terrific fliers and leadership potential but rumors are that political influence and institutional culture interference is having an impact. Their procurement process was hobbled by bureaucracy and mismanagement of projects(procurement are projects too).
Regardless of the spit shined face the Indian fanboys present here by making tall claims or copy pasting exaggerated links it is a huge mess to fix and really needs some diligent and empowered leadership to create the right impact. In some ways they do mirror the Russians in the sense they have great equipment but training standards aren’t being enforced or coordination is all over the place.
So, yes - what is helping the PAF is the IAF’s own issues. If they overcome it they will wax the floor with the PAF after day 2 of an air war.
Let’s not forget, just be sheer size, momentum and a superpower(some Indian had an orgasm) of a technology growth base in the private sector they are poised(if not focused or prepared) to start competing with China on certain aspects.
That isn’t to take away from the PAF’s own issues and personal fiefdoms delaying or sabotaging projects but I will say the PAF is ever so slightly ahead of the team/training curve vs the IAF…. For now
This is not happening despite whatever IAF fixes. There is a threshold in capabilities that needs to be maintained by the PAF and PAF will ensure it does that in light of acquisitions that the IAF makes.
Unless IAF becomes a major 5th generation Air Force and PAF remains a 4/4.5 generation air power, the above cannot be achieved by the IAF.
While PAF's options may be limited in terms of Western hardware for manned platforms, but given the way the air power is moving in the direction of unmanned assets and standoff attack capabilities, PAF's options open up significantly along with keeping up with other force multipliers.
I agree but their training is good too, however sometimes the hype gets in the way of their actual potential. It isn't as if the IAF cannot do damage to Pakistan, they can and have done in the past wars, however India is not the United States and Pakistan is not Iraq. For some reason Indians think that operating against the PAF is a walk in the park (their overall size and propaganda pushes this narrative), and then the reality disproves the propaganda.Calling Russian/Soviet planes junk is quite hypocritical don't you think. The problem with IAF is not the birds but the man flying that bird. You don't have the kind of training and tactics PAF exercise for. We have F7PG which is also derived from Soviet era Mig-21 and we have never said that they are junk. The pilots that fly them know of bird's capability and the tactics required to use them effectively where as in case of IAF there is no cohesion no well thought out planning. I mean Rafael is not goose which lays the golden egg every time. In the end it is the tactics that matter not the bird. As long as IAF blames the bird it will still be a sub par air force not capable of the big leagues.
Over the past 15 years, the image of Phalcons, Su-30MKIs etc. was so over-hyped, that when it was put to test, it turned out to be sub-optimal. Perhaps these systems operated within their performance envelopes but what Pakistan had was an effective counter. Thus now the urge to move towards something different.
Pakistan has to train against a much larger adversary so we have to learn to sweat our assets much more than the Indians do. While we may not have access to the high-end technology systems, but we have access to a stable, consistent and continually improving set of capabilities with the Chinese. This along with select Western systems inducted by Pakistan and then home-grown training and interaction with foreign air forces has certainly helped the PAF however the push must continue to invest in and introduce more advanced capabilities.
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