I would guess Greenflag. Birds are carrying LGBs and no sidewinder training rounds.

Greenflag is primarily an air to ground exercise.

Hats off to US Forces

More U.S. Helicopters to Deploy for Pakistan Relief

American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2010 – Defense Department officials announced today the deployment of 18 additional helicopters to Pakistan as part of the expanding U.S. contribution to flood-relief efforts there.
The aircraft include 10 CH-47 Chinook and eight UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters from the 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment, 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, based at Fort Wainwright, Alaska. The unit will operate alongside the Pakistani military throughout flood-affected areas.
These helicopters are expected to begin flood-relief efforts in Pakistan in mid-September, officials said.
This is the latest in a series of deployments in response to Pakistan’s urgent request for flood-relief assistance. About 15 U.S. military helicopters and three C-130 Hercules aircraft already supporting flood-relief efforts in Pakistan have transported more than 2 million pounds of humanitarian assistance supplies and rescued more than 7,000 people.
Today, helicopters transported more than 750 people and delivered more than 160,000 pounds of food and supplies. C-130s delivered 6,000 pounds of food and supplies.
Since the floods began July 29, the United States has provided $150 million to support immediate relief efforts and has allocated an additional $50 million to assist with re-establishment of communities impacted by the floods, according to Defense Department reports.

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=60638

No, that’s incorrect. In 2-3 years PAF will have only 50 JF-17s i.e first batch. These clearly fall way short of replacing all the J-7s, Mirages and A-10s in the PAF fleet. Plus you’re adding J-10.

So, even after 2-3 years PAF will have INCREASED to 7 fighter types.

No. PLAAF has 600 J-7s, brand new J-8s and JH-7As. Besides, J-10, Su-27/30, J-11s. Thats the same as IAF. And those 600 J-7s aren’t retiring any time soon.

Maybe that’s why PLAAF doesn’t want the JF-17.

Both PAC and CATIC are churning out JF-17s.

By end of next year PAF see 50+ in inventory, so 200 in 4 years is not unrealistic.

Last A-5 unit is converting to JF-17 now. One Mirage unit has already transferred to Block 52s and another will convert to surplus F-16 A/Bs by next year.

So taking into account the JF-17 and F-16 rate of deliveries by 2015 most if not all the Mirage and F-7 fleets will be gone.

As per publicly stated by ACM, first F-20s should be delivered by 2013, so by end of 2014 we should easily have all 36.

So I make 3 types not 7.

I can easily give you sources for all the above. Or you can even look it up yourself! 😉

The F-16 has those panels too, however the difference is that the J-10’s panels are much more clear due to lower quality riveting and application of the skin and paint. Compare this to the F-16 where the access panels are there, but much less obvious and less visible. its one of the many reasons why Pakistan loves its F-16

Not quiet. PAF F-16s are mostly early 80 vintage. Nothing like the workmanship of the new blocks.

PAF loves the F-16 mainly as for a period of 30 years it was the fighter with the longest range and best radar in the PAF.

No country ever gives away its best equipment. Get real.

China has proven to be a great ally. I really dont have the time to give you a history lesson on this. but China is supplying Pakistan F-20 and AWACs. It is not doing this for any other nation.

But we are now getting away from the topic.

1) I see that as a plus point, having it so that your enemies dont know whether your coming or going is a benifit, when you send out a wing of Su-30s send out droned versions of old Mig-21Bis’s
2) How many pilots move around from one squadron to another? Also why would the avionics and displays not be altered to keep same user interface? Same problems would be encountered when dealing with an airforce with varying tranches of aircraft, not all the aircraft will have the most upto date software or capabilities.
3) This may be a problem and would it really cost that much more? your not going to suddenly need completely new DACT equipment or telemetry are you? you can use the same training aids but yes the skills needed to make the best use aircraft may vary.. again not a bad position to be in when you are in the IAF’s position
4) You would need the same percentage of spares yes you would have different type and you could not canabalise one squandron type to make another squadron type work but would you want to put your AF in a position where they have to canabalise parts? it should never be in that position in the first place! IAF can not afford to repeat what happened in the 90s with helicopters. You may even find that you have lucked out because one of your types of aircraft has higher rediness levels and reliability then the others.
5) Why would different weapon types be a problem? you stay have to pay £1 – £2million each to whoever you buy your missiles from. Your storage depots will still be able to store the same volume of weapons. The one thing it does do is the there is a posibility that your enemy will not be able to use one tactic to jam all your weapons and weapons systems. Also it would not be difficult to use the same weapons across the fleet. nothing wrong with Meteor AAM being fitted out on Su-30MKIs or R-77 onto a Typhoon. when your paying $11 billion people will listen to your needs if you put it in the contracts early enough.
7) Maintenance again a red hairing, composite repair will be composite repair. you will have one process specification as your base and you will put into place aircraft specific supplementaries (1 – 4 page additions) to cater for any particulars (this is what actually would happen in a MRO facility and your engineers and operators would not have any issue going from one repair to another). LCA is composite, large portion of the Su-30 is probably composite, the Mig-29s have composite sections.. Yes there are other systems other than structures that may need repair but i would suspect most parts would require replacements and would come under a spares issue.
8) No comment do not know much about these
9) Why would the planes have to be based at different bases (do not understand this one)

Also remember most modern multi role aircraft are compromised.. an aero design which is good for air to air combat may not have the wing loading to fly low and fast for an attack role and vice a versa.

There is a very good reason why the USAF still want and have the F-22..

Thanks for the civilised response.

1) I disagree. If you have a central tactics development area (TACDE for India), so many types to develop tactics and processes and then filter these through the air force will become difficult. Also, I would not be suprised if many Indian pilots may fly along Indian planes they no nothing about.
2) Same user interface between European, British, French and Russian jets?
Pilots do change around types often, I think it is very rare a pilot sticks to flying one type his whole career. This is the case internationally, however it may be different in IAF.
3) Answered in 1
4) Dont really get your point here. Anyway, you seem to agree. IAF had major headache with spares for its recent Hawks and even its older MIGs that were built in India. This problem will not go away, and standardisation on just 3-4 types would make a larger and more reliable spares holding much easier.
5) Meteor on SU-30 and R-77 on Typhoon? Come on, even you must admit now you are being way to optimistic. Simply wont happen. Instead you will need a massive reserve of different types of ordanance for different jets, as a result IAF will either skimp and keep the bare minimum or it will end up having to fork out massive amounts on different weapons stocks to a host of different suppliers.
6) Composites on aircraft are just one small part. You will need specialist tooling and engineers trained for the different avionics, hydraulics and weapons systems. You will also need to spread these over several bases.
7) There are MANY reason planes may have to be based at different bases during their service. I am sure you are aware of this.

As I said earlier, 6-7 different types is a major headache. Especially when these will come from potentially 4 different nations.

As many posters are jumping up and down about PAF as an example lets look into that.

By 2014 PAF envisages operating just 3 types from just 2 nations.

JF-17, F-20 and F-16.

As a result it has reduncency (no dependency on any one single nation) yet at the same time a high level of standardisation.
Many of the avionics and weapons of the JF-17 will be interoperable with F-20
Then just the F-16 fleet.

In addition to this, if you look at all the PAF’s aqquisition it is following a policy of redendency but all equipment will be either US/NATO or Chinese

So AWACs – Erieye + KJ200
SAM – SPADA 2000 + Chinese systems
Ground radar – TPS-77 + YLC-6 Radar
BVR Missiles – AMRAAM + SD-10
High end fighter – F-16 + F-20

Can you see how there is back up yet at the same time simplicity?

Obviously India will have a very sophisticated fleet of very advanced fighters in both the SU-30 and MRCA winner, but it will also have an assortment of at least 4 other fighter types, many practically doing the same job.

I don’t know… I’m fairly sure that between all the J-7s, J-8s, J-10s, J-11s, Su-27s, Su-30s and so on the PLAAF operates more aircraft types. There’s also the Russian Air Force with its myriad of MiGs, Sukhois, Ilyushins, Antonovs, Yakovlevs and Tupolevs.:rolleyes:

You could probably count the J-11/SU-27/SU-30 as sub types and J-7 being phased out.

As for Russians,still only SU-27/30, SU-25, SU-24,MIG-29, MIG-35

Still less then IAF!

That’s 6 types. You forgot Jaguar.

But 6 types is better than 8 types. Till 2005-06, we also had MiG-25s and till 2008 we had MiG-23s. In another 5 years’ time MiG-27 will be gone too.

Even when Tejas is introduced this year, thats a net reduction in types from 8.

Now Pak too has 6 types namely Mirage-3, Mirage-5, J-7, A-5, F-16 and JF-17. Coming Up :- J-10. Thats 7 types total. That’s the same as IAF, isnt it ? So you gotta know your own Air-Force’s mess in the first place, before wishing others good luck.

I love the way you guys always bring it back to PAF,it is like an obsession!

However, let me clarify.

A-5 – Last sqd now converting to JF-17
Mirage 3/5 = being replaced by JF-17
F-7 = being replaced by JF-17
F-16

In future F-20.

So in 2-3 years PAF will operate 3 fighter types.

That compares to 6 for the IAF (MRCA, M2K, MIG-29, SU-30, LCA, Jaguar)

That is still more types then any other air force on the planet….