MastanKhan
PDF VETERAN
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- Dec 26, 2005
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My friend procurement is not a easy thing a lot of factors come into play. every time we went for something good we had a strong resistance from uncle sam because India had good lobbyist, Example Senator Larry Pressler between 1983 to 1997 he went to India 27 times and after retirement he his Board of Director HAL and other Indian telecommunication companies. Every time PAF made a good decision there was resistance so we had to go towards china, I can only say that most of our F-6, FT-5 fleet even F-7 came free of coast. When it came to F-16s we had sent several pilots and a lot of engg and air men to Dover and then we established a work shop in sargodha for $25mil with upgrades in the shop the amount as of today stands 65 million $$.
Every time F-16 was engagged it came out victorious, The fighter was agile, maneuverable and fast and PAF loved it because it was a tested fighter. I don't know about you but once you fly it , You fall in love with it plus to much was already invested over the period of time. So PAF decided to stick to F-16s but other opportunities came along like the Gripen our pilots spent 2 months flying it including COAS Tanveer. It was easy to maintain and had the same capabilities as F-16. but again we thought that the engines in it we can get screwed there. Our pilots have flown Rafael, Mirage 2000, Eurofighter and all three planes were good enough Because of our engg and airmen working on F-16s have become so good that these other planes were no problem in handling the technology weather it was UK, French or South Africa. Now the biggest problem is that we do want to buy 4.5 gen planes but no money and US will not allow us to buy other fighters from another country with the money they are giving us every month on WOT. So we are basically screwed
Sir,
You are preaching to the choir----F 16 to a pakistani pilot was as if the plane was originally designed for them----it outperformed and outdid every other plane in the history of aviation and will continue to do so for awhile----but the problem with some of these beautiful women is that they also carry the extra baggage with them----the fatal attraction is so enticing and intimidating, that the whole of the airforce would be feeling like an orphan if we had taken a different route. This plane has ensnared us and entangled us with its form and function----it has taken the sanity out of our sense of reasoning and taken the clarity out of our thinking----we are totally mesmerized and hypnotized by this plane---we are consumed by the desire to own more and more of these at whatever cost to the national exchequer---.
The only time the fog clears the mind when we are close to a confrontation with india and we realize that we don't have enough of what we need---so we go and get the F 7 PG's----then we go and order FC 20's.
Sir----I can tell you through my personal experience----it is indeed so difficult to walk away from the one that you love so much---but indeed once you do that, the sense of liberation and smell of freedom is so sweet that it clears all the cobwebs and takes away that thinking " I can't live without you ".
Beauty is only skin deep----the beauty of the mirage 2000 was deep down to the bone.