Pakistan to purchase Mirage 2000-05 aircraft from France
.c Kyodo News Service
ISLAMABAD, March 1 (Kyodo) – Pakistan is seriously thinking of buying Mirage 2005-05 MKII aircraft from France while a four-member French defense mission visits Saturday for two days, Defense Ministry sources said Friday.
The French delegation is being led by Jean Louis Barbier, a senior official of the French Defense Ministry, and is to meet relevant officials of the Pakistan Navy and Air Force in Karachi and Islamabad.
The sources said the delegation would primarily focus on reviewing ongoing projects such as cooperation in the assembly of a high-performance Agasta submarine, provided by France, at the Karachi Naval Yard and retrofitting and upgrading existing Mirage aircraft in Pakistan’s air force.
Pakistan has already evaluated the feasibility of introducing Mirage 2000-05 MKIIs into its air fleet and a Pakistan Air Force delegation is expected to visit France to test fly the aircraft, sources said.
President Pervez Musharraf has also discussed the possibility of buying another batch of F-16 aircraft from the United States, an issue to be examined by a joint Pakistan-U.S. defense group that will hold a meeting within next few months.
AP-NY-03-01-02 0359EST
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March 1, 2002 at 5:29 pm