Nice pix Flex
Many thanks! Your right, for 1 million, its gives good bang per buck, but you have to remember that PAF has to tie up lots of aircrew and support staff to keep these birds flying, the “return on investment” may not be worth it considering the fact that we will have more then doubled our ant-tank force by the end of 2004, may as well let teh AH-1s take over the ant-tank burden….

Originally posted by zheng1980
To Arthur
If the 30mm gun was installed, it would put even more weight on the a/c. Twin 23mm guns were sufficient to strafe any armoured vehical including tanks at that time.

If any conflict with India occurs, I dont think MANPADs are the most threatening for PAF A-5Cs, AA guns like ZSU-23 Shilka or 35mm oliekon is much more capable of taking down the A-5C. MANPADs are not really for bringing down fast flying attack a/c, Israelis had many A-4s survive SA-7 shots during the Yom Kippur war. btw, what kind of MANPADS does India have? SA-7?

SA-7 and SA-14 i THINK

Pak has Stinger, RBS-70, Mistral and Anza 2

Originally posted by Dubya
A-5’s should be retired.

I think a/c such as the A-10, Su-25 and in this case the A-5 are more suitable to fighting irregular forces such as guerillas (or “terrorists”) rather than in proper conventional wars.

The A-10 had a field day in Iraq because the Iraqi air force never put up a proper fight in either 1991 or in 2003. In the case of the Su-25, neither the Chechens nor the Afghan freedom fighters had an airforce as such or even a proper airdefence network.

But in a Pakistan-India showdown, this would be different. I doubt airsuperiority would be gained on either side. So an a/c like the A-5 would probably have a hard time dealing with not only surface-to-air threats but also the fear of being bounced by enemy jets. So a zippy new jet like the JF-17/FC-1 or the LCA might be less effective in the CAS role than A-5 type a/c but would be more survivable because of their speed, maneouvrability etc, much like the F-16 or F/A-18.

In a Pak-India showdown, I believe the two airforces would try to conserve most of their a/c and pilots, so I don’t think low-level, highly dangerous CAS missions would be flown very much.

Finally isn’t Pakistan acquiring more AH-1’s for the CAS/AT role? I know a helo is not as survivable as an A-5, but their acquisition does make the A-5 somewhat redundant.

I agree, Pakistan should order another 40 AH-1s to bring the fleet up to 100, upgrade them all with CNITE and TOW 2 and get rid of the A-5s, this would be a better and more cost effective option and I am sure Pakistan army would prefer this

Originally posted by Wolverine
claimed as a kill and proven to be an engine failure due to gun gas ingestion into the inlet. your own websites will proove that.

Negative Wolverine, Army claimed it as a kill! Funny how you know it was engine failure when the wreckage landed in Pakistani territory!? 🙂

http://www.pakdef.info/pakmilitary/army/war/news11.html

” CONCLUSION: During the two months of operations, the IAF lost a MiG-21, a MiG-27 and an MI-17 helicopter to the Pakistan Army. In addition, it lost four MiG-21s, one Mig-27, one Jaguar and two helicopters in the Kargil theatre. The loss of a Mirage 2000 at the Srinagar airbase, besides several other aircraft which were hit by the Mujahideen, could not be confirmed.”

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