‘Bo Kaata’
Faced with unexpectedly stiff resistance from Pakistan Army, the Indian offensive launched on 6th September 1965 in the Lahore-Kasur sector had floundered badly. Having failed to capture the vital...
View ArticleA Sword for Hussein
Part-ICommitments under the newly signed pact with Egypt, as well as the prevailing atmosphere of anti-Israeli rage in the Arab world forced King Hussein bin Talal’s hand at the outbreak of the Six Day...
View ArticleCheapest Kill
The morning of 7th of December was quite hazy, particularly at lower altitudes where the dust of Punjab plains mingled with the moist, cold air, giving the sky a murky appearance. It was just four days...
View ArticleA Hard Nut to Crack
The much-awaited II Corps offensive on the Western Front got overtaken by events as the 1971 Indo-Pak War headed for a mortifying finale for Pakistan. PAF had been conserving its assets for the...
View ArticleIt is the Man Behind the Gun
Pakistani military planners had conceived the West to be the main theatre of 1971 War but the gains in Chamb, Hussainiwala and Fazilka turned out to be a measly sop for the loss of East Pakistan....
View ArticleShahbaz Over Golan
Post-haste summons for volunteers found an eager band of sixteen PAF fighter pilots on their way to the Middle East, in the midst of the 1973 Ramadan war. After a grueling Peshawar-Karachi-Baghdad...
View ArticleKargil Conflict and Pakistan Air Force
Pakistani writings on Kargil conflict have been few; those that did come out were largely irrelevant and in a few cases, were clearly sponsored. The role of the PAF has been discussed off and on, but...
View ArticleMirages at War
"Enemy pilots should see it, but never catch up with it.” [MARCEL DASSAULT] At the outbreak of the 1971 Indo-Pak War, Mirage IIIEs were the newest and most advanced combat aircraft in the PAF...
View ArticleAir Support in Thar – 1971 War
Spiny-tailed lizards scamper across the dunes that make up the vast Thar Desert straddling the Sindh-Rajasthan Border. Buzzards soar on the desert currents during day and caracals prowl the scattered...
View ArticleF-6s at War
The US embargo on military sales to Pakistan at the outbreak of 1965 Indo-Pak War was received with dismay and disbelief by the PAF, whose combat and training aircraft were totally of US origin....
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The Mirage III/5/50 Family
“Like a desert vision, so that enemy pilots should see it but never catch up with it.” Thus, Marcel Dassault lyrically interpreted the French Air Staff Requirement (ASR) of 1953 for ‘a lightweight...
View ArticleAir Support at Sea – 1971 War
At the outbreak of the war, PAF’s maritime support capability of any consequence was limited to night bombing of a couple of Indian Navy’s coastal installations on the Saurashtra Coast and, daytime...
View ArticleAir Support in Shakargarh – 1971 War
The Shakargarh Salient juts into Indian territory in a particularly threatening way – the northern boundary of the salient runs not too far from the road between Pathankot and Jammu. The Kathua-Samba...
View ArticleAir Support in Chamb - 1971 War
The General Staff at Rawalpindi felt that, besides the main strategic offensive in Ganganagar-Suratgarh area, an additional secondary offensive was obligatory for creating a ‘pull’ on the Indian...
View ArticleSundry Air Support - 1971 War
Besides the raging battles in Shakargarh and Chamb, two other sectors in Punjab saw fierce exchanges resulting in minor, but potentially useful, gains by Pakistan Army’s IV Corps. Both in Sulaimanki...
View ArticleLike the Lovers' Secret
A weirdly amusing yarn with an unsolved ‘whodunit,’ that has myriad possibilities in Pakistan’s bubbling politico-military cauldron. A succession of disobedient yawns testified to the excruciatingly...
View ArticleAir Defence in Southern Sector - 1971 War
No 32 Fighter Ground Attack Wing at Masroor was a large composite Unit, half of whose assets had been moved to the northern bases. What remained of the fighter units included No 19 Squadron with a...
View ArticleAir Defence in Northern Sector - 1971 War
With just four low level radars available in the northern air defence sector, there was no possibility of providing uninterrupted coverage along the border, including the battle areas. The large gaps...
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The Gujarat Beechcraft Incident - 1965 War
"It is a twin-engined, twin-tailed aircraft….with four side windows, probably an eight-seater….it is flying at 3,000 ft AMSL. Request further instructions.” Flg Off Qais M Hussain, who had been...
View ArticlePAF on the Offensive - 1971 War
Planners in the PAF clearly knew that for achieving a favourable situation over the battlefield, air defence alone would not suffice, and the the enemy air force had to be countered through offensive...
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