Pakobserver.net

Pak to acquire more Mirages from Libya

Aroosa Alam

Islamabad—After the successful conclusion of 50 old Mirages deal , Libya and Pakistan are at the advance stages of cutting yet another deal of 28 Mirages which are available with Libyan Air Force in semi operational condition. Two sides have had many round of talks and sources claim that Pakistan may agree to buy these aircrafts,

Some to induct into service and some to be used for spares. Initially Libyan Air Force wanted to retain these Mirages operational in their force but the French SAGEM proposed F-1 upgrade which seemed little too costly for the Libyan government. With sanctions lifted, Libyan Air Force is in a mood to go for new and modern fighters rather than keeping the obsolete technology.

F-1 upgrade involves major structural up-gradation of Mirages entailing hefty amounts. For Pakistan, it may not be that expensive to carry out these up-gradations as PAC Kamara is quite capable of carrying out these jobs in a very cost effective manner.

Sources said that since Mirage 111 and 5 are phasing out rapidly, Pakistan needs to have lot of spares to run its operational fleet of Mirages particularly those which have been upgraded by SAGEM recently.

The best solution for PAF is to go for old vintages of Mirages to sustain its relatively newer jets Below is the list of Mirages which were bought but most did not see service as they were cannibalised for spares. Some of the Mirages however were inducted into service and are fully operational.

#1 France
#2 UK
#3 Germany
#4 Italy / Greece / Turkey
#5 Sweden
#6 Spain / Norway / Netherlands

> if Littoral Power projection is not a requirment then why are
> three large LSTs being ordered?

to impart some respectability to a very meager force. 3 large LSTs hardly presage the invasion of Normandie. there is nothing much to invade in the IOR. a few island territories have to be defended. A dieppe style hit-n-run raid on Gwader is at the stretch of possibility if a war erupts.

>There is almost no military sense in mouting nuclear tipped PJ-10 on >Banglores: They are not as survivable as submarine launched weapons >are,

could be a stopgap until such a sub based capability emerges. but again
I mentioned it only a very side-role not the meat of the task. wonder if
a few nuke-tipped ASMs would be nice to have against a escalation by PLAN….probably a yes there too.

tuollaf43 can you please clarify what kind of Mine avoidance measures are available and being mounted in new comparable ships ? is the sonar able to detect mines pinging in active mode (not good if subs are lurking..) ?

for mine hunting IN is planning on a fleet of new composite hulled vessels just like everyone else. the old pondicherry class are long in tooth. new eqpt is being sought and evaluated.

the stated 300km range on klub and brahmos are for MTCR compliance. I wouldnt be surprised if india comes up with longer range version of brahmos/klub in a few yrs – its very much on the to-do/ongoing work list 😉

Derby and python now form the capable looking Spyder mobile SAM system for protection of forces on the march. should be able to shred any loitering attack helos or lo-lo-lo birds limb from limb.

useful to hunt terrorists in forests with rockets, gun pods and a small FLIR pod esp. if helicopter gunships are in short supply.

so was there ever such a real a/c on land or sea or is it a model ?