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Subject:
Pakistani Air Force
SGTObvious
1/23/2004 7:06:00 AM
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Pakistan's Air Force has an advantage common to all highly populous but low income nations: Their are few job openings for "fighter pilot" and a great many people who would want the job. In the United States, Fighter Pilot is an extremely prestigious career, but the US Navy and Air Force have to compete for their pilots against a great many other employers who also want the mentally and physcially fit, ambitious young men who would be pilots. The airlines are part of the competition- but there are a great many other career paths just begging for these people.
Comparable Prestige- a great many careers in the United States offer a young man like that great status. The US does not like military heros, we forget them quickly. In Pakistani society, "Fighter Pilot" is somewhere between "National Hero" and "God" in social status.
Also, per capita, there are far fewer fighter pilots. Pakistan has half the population of the United States, but about 5% of the fighter pilots.
The end result is, it is fairly easy for a nation like Pakistan to get the very few super-qualified men it needs, even if, overall, the education and health levels in Pakistan are poor.
This means that the real quality difference we should expect in the Pakistani air force has nothing to do with the recruited pilot ability, or the quality of the flight training- it is the amount of air time the pilots get.
In this regard, the Pakistani air force operates on two levels. First, the F-16's. Being Western designs, the F-16 can tolerate a lot more flight time than the Chinese air craft in the Pakistani arsenal. Also, the F-16's are considered the "elite" of the Pakistani Air Force, and get more funding. The Pakistanis love these planes- they get all the "official" attention. They don't get as much flight time as their US counterparts, but they get enough.
The Mirage pilots get less, and the other pilots less still.
So, a Pakistani pilot in his F-16 will be, one on one, on par with an F-16 pilot from another nation.
There is, though, the question of support. Pakistan has no AWACS type aircraft, and is weak on electronic warfare and intelligence. So, while one on one an F-16 pilot will be good, as a unit, a Pakistani F-16 squadron will not be as effective as a western counterpart.
I odn't have the same knowledge about the Indian Air Force (All this comes from having met one Pakistani air force officer, so it may be very skewed to his views) but I do know one thing you will not find in the "official" lists of combat aircraft available to Pakistan:
Pakistan acquired several Mig-21's from Afghanistan. These are used in "Aggressor" training, as the Mig 21 is commonly used by India. India would be wise to counter by ordering some F-16's from the United States. |
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