pakistan Air Force -2

DEFENCE NOTES

What is the role of the PAF, one may ask. It would be pertinent to go back a few decades to analyse the situation. It was on 29th August 1950 that the Army Chief, General Sir Douglas Gracy sent a paper titled, "First Lessons from Korea" to his formation commanders. A copy was also sent to the Air Chief. In this paper General Gracy assessed the roles of the Pakistan Army and Air Force in the light of lessons drawn from the Korean War. Para 4 of the paper stated, "The principal lesson I have learnt from S.Korea in this respect is that, even though the government policy may not be firm or may be delayed, this does NOT absolve the Armed Forces from :-

(a) Preparing the strongest possible defences and keeping them fit for occupation.

(b) Refusing to wait for financial sanction to do this, and,

Para 10 of the paper dealt with the role of the PAF. General Gracy felt "the absolute necessity for the PAF to concentrate mainly on the destruction of enemy tanks in the initial stages, at long and short range, i.e. either in indirect or direct support of the land forces".

The above concept was further elaborated in para 16 of the paper, where General Gracy had wirtten, "Applying all this to Pakistan, where aggression from INDIA and AFGHANISTAN, but hardly from the Soviet Forces, may be sudden and unexpected, the following lessons emerge :-

The small Pakistan air force should be trained primarily for tactical support of the Pakistan Army ad Navy, and be equipped to carry out this task with suitable aircraft. Army/ Air and Navy/Air cooperation must be perfected, especially as regards air recce, the production of air photos, and the direct support of the Army in conjunction with artillery in the destruction of enemy tanks. The indirect tactical support of the Army by air attacks on enemy ammunition, POL and supply convoys should also be studied".

Official history of the Air Force notes that "It appears that the paper was not taken in the spirit in which it was written; probably there was a personal background to it. Atcherley (Air Chief ) reacted strongly to the views of the Army C- in-C and considered them interference in this domain…… He believed in gaining air supremacy by destroying the enemy air force first, and then getting down to ground support role, of "You fight your war and we fight ours". The truth probably was somewhere in between".

Air Vice - Marshal Atcherley was of the firm opinion that the Pakistan Air Force should first take on the enemy air force, then try to isolate the battlefield and after that give direct support to the ground forces. General Gracy was not too happy about this and wrote to the Air Chief. "What has always worried me is that while the PAF are busy taking on the enemy air force and then attempting to isolate the battlefield, the enemy will have given the army a devastating knock, if not knock-out".

When the two senior British officers completed their tenure and left Pakistan the matter was still unresolved. The arguments continued. It is therefore to the credit of the Pakistan Air Force that in future conflicts with the Indian Air Force it was able to perform both tasks in an admirable manner. Air supremacy was achieved and ground support was provided to the Army.

The first conflict between the Air Force of Indian and Pakistan took place on Eid Day 10th April 1959 when an Indian Air Force Canberra (R.P) entered Pakistan’s air space flying at over 50,000 feet, well above our newly acquired F-86 Sabre aircraft’s capability But by a sustained and super-human effort the Indian Canberra was shot down. During the Indo - Pak War of 1965 the Pakistan Air Force came into its own. It was able to put the large Indian Air Force on the defensive and gained air superiority in four days. It also blunted all Indian ground offensives by inflicting heavy and unacceptable casualties on Indian tanks, guns vehicles and troops. According to an observer, "The performance of the PAF was excellent as they gained complete victory in the air. The IAF was defeated in all departments - man to man, machine to machine, mission to mission and sector to sector".

After the 1965 war the United States placed an embargo on our purchase of new equipment. New aircrafts of Chinese (MIG - 19) and French (Mirage) origin were inducted into the Air Force and quickly integrated. During the 1971 Indo - Pak conflict the Pakistan Air Force put up a gallant fight destroying and damaging over 150 Indian aircraft. The Indian Air Force which had by then been expanded to become the fifth largest Air Force in the World was prevented from gaining any form of superiority over Pakistan Air space, even after shifting the air element operating against East Pakistan to support operations against West Pakistan, when the Dhaka airstrip had been permanently put out of action. Some observers are of the opinion that this was the main reason why India did not pursue her land operations against West Pakistan after the fall of Dhaka, although Indian desire was to finish both wings of Pakistan.

Every effort is made to see that the Air Force continues to remain a strong and viable force so that the country is not " at the mercy of an aggressor". I well remember when I was Chief of the General Staff at GHQ, and responsible for the Army’s planning and conduct of operations in peace and war, when the Indian Air Force inducted new aircraft including the deep strike Jaguar from U.K. New defence thinking on our part was indicated and a high powered meeting was held at Peshawar, where the President who was also the Army Chief, and the Finance Minister attended. I represented the Army. After the presentation and discussion it was decided to induct another batch of Mirage aircraft. I heard the President whisper to Finance Minister. "This is an essential requirement and we must find the finances for it". The Finance Minister nodded his head with conviction and said simply " it will be". Thirty Mirage aircraft were eventually ordered from France. I surrendered some amount from the Army’s budget for the purpose.

The Finance Minister was Mr Ghulam Ishaque Khan who was not encumbered by his association with the World Bank and the IMF. His concerns were therefore entirely related to the country. His financial policy was also very simple as was followed by Baroness Thatcher, while Prime Minister of England - "Spend less than what you earn". Mr. Ghulam Ishaque Khan was therefore able to produce the needed finances when required for projects of national importance.

India continues to enlarge her Armed Forces by purchasing and producing new equipment possessing the latest technology available at home and abroad. This is most dangerous for us, as India’s overall aim of destroying Pakistan as an independent entity still remains. In this regional background the Pakistan Air Force may be getting a bit out of date, urgently requiring the induction of new aircraft. Two successive Air Chiefs have brought these problems in the open by taking the press into confidence. The nation must know what is at stake. It will not be an exaggeration to say that the very existence of Pakistan as an independent sovereign nation is at stake.

The choice before the nation expressed in simple words is, if we want a strong and viable defence we should be prepared to pay for it. The requirements of the Air Force are urgent and genuine and must be catered for by those in the government responsible for the nation’s defence and well being. Unfortunately there is a lobby at home and abroad who are making an effort to see that our defence capability is slowly eroded. These element must be located and exposed, as they are sponsored by outside powers for obvious reasons.