Pakistan Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

siegecrossbow

siegecrossbow

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Deino said:
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PAF Commander, ACM Zaher Ahmed Baber Sidhu has revolutionised the PAF over the past four years.
PAF
“We ambushed them,” a high-ranking PAF officer told me in mid-July. “We trapped them in our kill chain and created chaos.”

That’s how the PAF claims it shot down six Indian Air Force (IAF) fighters in the early hours of May 7, when the biggest beyond visual range (BVR) air battle was contested on Pakistan’s border with India.

The IAF had launched Operation Sindoor (Sindoor being an orange/red powder worn by Hindu women). The PAF retaliated with a counter-operation, Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos, (an Arabic phrase meaning a solid structure, derived from the Quran.)

More than 114 fighters were involved - 72 IAF and 42 from the PAF - most believed to be fitted with BVR missiles developed by the French, Israelis, Russians and Chinese. The senior officer said: “Fifty-two minutes after the air war had started, the fight was over, we won and they headed home.

“We could have shot down more Rafales than we did, but we held back. An escalation could have led to all-out war between two nuclear nations. During Op Bunyan-un-Marsoos we targeted the Rafales and the S-400s [Russian air defence system] and it worked out well!”
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Unfolding air war

India had been seeking revenge for the Pahalgam terror attack that took place in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22, when five armed terrorists killed 26 mainly Hindu civilians. India’s government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, blamed Pakistan for this atrocity and he, along with the majority of the Indian public seemingly, wanted revenge. “We watched while on full alert, waiting for a response,” the PAF officer told me. For six tense days, the PAF monitored the build-up of transport aircraft, supporting large deployments of fighters to several IAF Western Command and South-Western Command bases. They knew an attack was imminent and were prepared for it.

Each of the four Air Commands – North, Central, South and West – operates deployable command and control (C2) centres, capable of directing operations across vast distances. Among their many functions one stood out for the author - the long-range vectoring of hypersonic missiles, like the CM-400AKGs that the PAF JF-17C Thunder jets launched at some of the most formidable assets in India’s arsenal. They included the highly advanced Russian-built S-400 air defence systems (see The S-400 Quandary, pages 38-41).
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The author was granted rare access to one of the deployable C2 centres, witnessing first-hand how it functioned. It is part of the PAF Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu’s integrated multi-domain operations philosophy he has pursued since becoming PAF Commander in March 2021 – for more on that see later. An Air Vice Marshal from the newly created Space Force added: “The C2 centres are reliable and robust and can see across the border into India, but I won’t disclose the range due to the sensitive nature. Fusing data with our new unmanned, space, EW and cyber commands means they are effectively our nerve centres.”

PAF’s Space Command has redefined the battlespace. Using indigenous satellites, it delivers round-the-clock intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) support. The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), datalinks real-time information to PAF aircraft bypassing the limitations of the line-of-sight communication. Through secure SATCOM connectivity, pilots not only gain unmatched situational awareness but also offensive capabilities like electronic attack. It’s a central piece of the PAF’s Link 17 (and the enhanced Skyguard system), fed to the JF-17s, J-10Cs and Erieye to provide pilots with the situational awareness needed to win a war.
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All new air doctrine is created and tested at the PAF’s ACE facility, based at Mushaf, that has a huge tactical training range -one of the best in the world according to the Turkish Air Force (see last month’s Anatolian Eagle exercise report)
This means every cockpit receives a Recognised Air Picture through encrypted datalinks, ensuring PAF aircrew possess the tactical clarity needed to dominate the skies. This fusion of space, cyber, electronic warfare (EW) and kinetic power has turned the PAF into a truly multi-domain combat force, capable of deterring, responding and prevailing in future wars, which seems highly likely. This capability has been built up since the author’s last visit in 2020 and was clearly revolutionising the way PAF the trains and goes to war.

Several military veterans the author spoke to were keen to stress that the PAF is just part of the fighting machine run by the Chief of Army Staff, Field Marshal Asim Munir who made a high-profile visit to the USA in mid-August. He harnesses the combined strengths of Army, Navy and Air Force, but this feature focusses on the PAF.

EW at work

On April 29, a week after the Pahalgam attack, four IAF Rafales departed Ambala Air Force Station. Their mission, to bomb terrorist targets in the north, but according to the PAF, a mobile PAF electronic warfare (EW) unit deployed along the front line saw them approaching and jammed their radars and communications, while cyber-attacks on electric grids in the north, rendered the Rafales helpless. They abandoned their mission and instead diverted to Srinagar Air Force Station.
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During the author’s time at Minhas, a grey example always flew with a camouflaged jet
The Dassault 20ECMs of 24 ‘Blinders’ Squadron which had performed so well in Op Swift Retort in February 2019 (see panel) were not used in Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos because of their lack in wattage power. Trying to overpower a target receiver is heavily influenced by the power output, and a lack of this power will make the jammer less effective at disrupting intended signals. This would have been the case with the S-400 air defence system or Rafale’s Thales RBE2 radar, which MBDA designed to be robust against jamming, and integrated with the passive Thales Spectra EW system.
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