Pak to take measures to counter Indian Phalcon purchase - agency
IRNA
Islamabad, Oct 17, IRNA -- Pakistan`s Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Kaleem Saadat declared on Friday that Pakistan was taking appropriate steps to counter the purchase of Phalcon radar system by India, official APP news agency reported. "I would not go into details but everything is going well and Inshallah you will hear good news by June 30 next year," he said speaking to the newsmen at the inauguration of the three-day Airshow at the Walton Airport in Lahore. Regarding the purchase of F-16`s from Belgium and Dutch Air Forces, he said they have re-structured their forces and the equipment was excess to their requirement and therefore they are looking for a buyer. He said the Belgium F-16s were of the same vintage as of PAF and their induction would pose no problems for PAF. However, he said the Dutch warplanes were of the more advanced version. The Air Chief said new Hercules transport aircraft, which Pakistan was purchasing from USA, would join PAF after all the necessary details had been worked out. Kaleem Saadat said PAF had signed a contact with Indonesia for the purchase of four CN-235 Transport aircraft. "They were for our efforts for the diversification of our fleet and two aircraft are expected to reach Pakistan by November next month and the remaining two, next year." Answering a question, he said the second prototype of JF-17 Thunder, jointly manufactured by Pakistan and China, would fly in March-April next year. "We`ll have a total of three prototypes to join the flight test programme next year during which the aircraft would be checked for its various capabilities." He said the next step would be the manufacturing of small batch of these aircraft to undergo further testing and validation of all the systems. "Thereafter, we hope to produce sixteen planes, eight each, for PAF and its Chinese counterpart. That will subsequently lead to serial production presently programmed for June 2006." When asked about frequent air crashes of PAF planes, he admitted the attrition rate was a `bit high` and explained that Mirage planes in the Air Force fleet were 34 years old and were the oldest such aircraft, according to APP. "The original equipment manufacturers have stopped producing some of the parts and we are not getting as much support as we should get from them and we cannot produce those parts over here. "At the same time, it is not possible for us to ground the aircraft also because for any Air Force to be ready the pilots must fly certain minimum hours. "We take little bit of risk and we do our best to maintain those planes from whatever resources and methods we have. But essentially it is the process of ageing of the fleet." Asked whether Pakistan was buying Mirage-2000 from Qatar, ACM Saadat said Pakistan would not buy those twelve aircraft because they were not enough given the complexities regarding the maintenance, training and logistics system for such a small number of planes. "Our original plan was that if France was to agree for a larger number of aircraft then this could have formed a part of a larger package and that we would have opted for", he said. "So far there has been no clear indication whether they do want to give it to us or not. So it is pending a final decision. But the final decision would be made very soon, one way or the other which ever way we want to commit ourself." Recalling Air Chief`s conference in USA, he reportedly said it impressed upon the Americans the importance of imbalance in the conventional arms between Pakistan and India. TSH/211 End
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