France to Accelerate Work on PAF

[Snauman]

France to accelerate work on PAF, PN projects

By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir

ISLAMABAD: France has assured Pakistan of accelerating pace of work in ongoing projects concerning defence requirements of Pakistan Air Force and Navy preferably.

France will upgrade Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) Mirage aircraft that will bring the capability of about 120 plans at par in different characteristics with the high-tech multi-role F-16 and other high profile contemporarily plans.

The well placed official sources told The News here on Thursday that the high level delegation of French Armament Directorate, led by its director general, visiting Pakistan these days and discussing with authorities here about the in hand joint projects and devising methods for trouble shooting if any in carrying forward them. Currently the PAF Mirage III and V are undergoing the process of up gradation of its delivery system that has become the most accurate and turned the planes system wise very close to the high-tech one. The process is almost complete while the same plans would be undergoing another up gradation when they will be having the most sophisticated nave (navigational) and attacking system. With this the fleet of the Mirage, aircraft will become world class high-tech machine, the sources said.

The French delegation has come to Pakistan on the invitation of Air Martial (retd) Zahid Anees, secretary ministry of defence production and is led by a four-star general of the French armed forces.

The overall up gradation of the Mirages will be completed by mid-2006 and that will pave the way for up gradation of more Mirage plans already acquired by Pakistan through various sources.

France will provide Pakistan more efficient system for overhauling the aircraft that will help Pakistan’s technicians to overhaul and maintenance of their plans in shorter period of time. This will also help the PAF to keep even bigger number of the plans with airworthiness for much more hours.

Meanwhile, the sources said that Pakistan would keep its efforts on for finding the most sophisticated high-tech aircraft for the PAF fleet, as the F-16 is still a proposition that has already been ruled in by the quarters concern. Pakistan is hopeful that the United States will provide Pakistan more F-16 aircraft since no hurdle is in place in supply of the plans except the false hue and cry made by the Indians.

http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/index.html

 

[mysterious]

Woah! Such silence over the 'new' upgradation of the Mirage III/V fleet by the PAF. Interesting! Lets wait and see what 'technical' details come out about this upgrade work. :smokingc:

 

[darklegent]

The french have stopped manufacturing spares for these types of Mirage series. I think it would be more appropriate if the french could transfer the tooling to maufacture new spares, this would serve PAF better then to scavenge old aircrafts/spares from other countries.

Upgrading the aircrafts technically to bring the capability of about 120 planes at par in different characteristics........ I wonder what could be updated in an aircraft as old as the mirage III/V to make it comparable to the F-16. The updation of nav & attack systems is usually part of a MLU(the radar has already undergone upgradation in the near past). This should have been done at the same time. It would have served a lot more in Pakistani interests.

 

[P.A.F]

http://www.deepikaglobal.com/ENG4_sub.asp?newscode=85603&catcode=ENG4&subcatcode=

Pakistan, France agree to enhance defence ties
Islamabad, Dec 16 (UNI) Pakistan and France today agreed to further strengthen relations and collaborations in defence production.

An agreement was reached at a high-level meeting between Pakistan secretary defence production Air Marshal (retired) Zahid Anis and chief of the French International Relations Directorate of the Director General Armament General Jean-Paul Panie here.

''France will look favourably into Islamabad's defence needs,'' Mr Panie said.

He also met Defence Production Minister Habibullah Warriach, who called for a greater cooperation between the two countries in the field of defence.

Defence Production Ministry sources said the ongoing cooperation and the future projects were reviewed at length at the talks and France had asked Pakistan about the requirements of their armed forces.

Pakistan's cooperation with France in the defence field is as old as four decades and it grew particularly after the latter delivered Mirage aircraft to Pakistan Air Force in the early 1970s, followed by delivery of Dephne-class and Agosta-class submarines in 1977-78.

Pakistan has also inducted two of the three state-of-the-art Agosta submarines while the third ship is being constructed in Karachi by Pakistani experts under transfer of technology by DCNI of France.

It also delivered 40 refurbished Mirage aircraft to Pakistan after upgrading their avionics system under a 120-million-dollars deal signed in 1996by the then Benazir Bhutto government in 1996.

Pakistan, which is the second largest user of the Mirage aircraft after France, is also overhauling and building the same jets.
:? :? :? :? :? :? :?

 

[umair]

The reporter must have meant Rebuilding(Mirage rebuild factory Kamra)

 

[P.A.F]

OKAY. thanx

 

[adsH]

if i remember correctly French delegation visted Pak karma a year back i guess they were discussing this deal since then

 

[aaaditya]

french navigation system seem to be the best ,they are also used on the indian upgraded mig21-93,sukhoi30mki and lcatejas(topflight).on lca i think the french system would be replaced by the israeli system.

 

[P.A.F]

if these mirages are upgraded and looked after more (better overhaul facility) then how long can the PAF keep them active till????

 

[adsH]

depends if they become platform specialists, then they would be able to keep the airframe in Flying condition for many many years. GF can explain further Aussie's are platform specialists for the F-111. IF French are overhauling the Mirages completely then they may reduce the Hours on the frame i'm not sure how much can be done.

 

[aaaditya]

what are platform specialists(do you mean dedicated attack jets) :?:
wont they be too expensive to maintain :?:

 

[adsH]

no by platform specialists i mean an operator becomes the primary developer and maintainer of the Jet.and can upgrade and repair anything on the jet without the need of the original supplier.

 

[P.A.F]

i hope these jets can stay till 2020 because they are really useful aircraft.

 

[Jacob]

i hope these jets can stay till 2020 because they are really useful aircraft.

2020???? Even India's Mirage 2000 won't last that long.

:cop

Mod edit: gf: text edit

 

[gf0012-aust]

2020???? Paagla gaye ho kya? Even India's Mirage 2000 won't last that long.

:cop


English is the official language of this forum. Please remember this in future.

 

[P.A.F]

: . well then when do u think they would be retired???

 

[adsH]

not likely, Pakistan is investing too much in these Jets they will serve a distinct purpose in PAF. If you keep updating maintaining the AirFrame on regular intervals, its possible to keep the Ac flying. But you will need to be better then Suppliers since your taking the platform beyond its Supplier recommended Air Frame time. The Aussie's have an impressive Facility to Maintain there F-111, and they are the Platform Specialists for the F-111. YOu have to bear in mind that the Cost of maintaining a platform beyond a certain point gets too costly and less cost effective, and i think the maintenance Cost increases proportionately to the age of the AC, this may affect the uptime of the AC too.

 

[Aussie Digger]

In addition, no matter how good you become at maintaining an aircraft, eventually the point will be reached where the aircrat is no longer combat effective due to it's "old" design.

The F-111, whilst it can be maintained by Australia out to an estimated 2040 with not too many troubles, becomes extremely expensive and less combat capable as the years go by and defence technology improves. The F-111 for all it's positive attributes is a big, heavy and very non stealthy aircraft. The Mirage 111/5 series is in a similar situation. It may be possible to maintain this aircraft indefinitely however, it will become more expensive to do so as time passes and it will be increasingly outclassed as newer types enter service.

No matter how good an aircraft is, there's a time that every aircraft reaches, where it's time to let it go, no matter how much sentimentality is involved...

 

[SABRE]

There is not much of a chance for mirage-3 to stay in service till 2020. Retirement in near. Even if PAF can maintain its ability to fly & battle it wont be compitible to the latest of fighter.

 

[P.A.F]

WELL THEN WHY DON'T WE CONVERT THEM INTO MARTIME AIRCRAFT. they can carry good missiles for sub and naval fleet attack. they can be used in some sort off way. so i don't see the point in retiring them so early.