Pakistan seeks Air Force fleet upgrade

Pakistan wants to upgrade its aging fleet of fighter jets in anticipation of a prolonged battle against Islamist militants, although the purchase of fifth-generation planes would only be a last resort, an Air Force official said.

Pakistan is fighting a Taliban insurgency in its northwest and a separatist insurgency along its Iranian border in the west.

In 2014, the military launched a crackdown in the northwestern areas of North and South Waziri-stan and has managed to push back militants into a few pockets.

But its Air Force, which will need to retire dozens of jets over the coming years, lacks the latest technology and relies heavily on a fleet of about 70 US-made F-16s, which are solely capable of carrying out precision targeting.

“Our concern is that we don’t know how long these anti-terrorist operations will continue,” Pakistan Air Force second-in-command Muhammad Ashfaque Arain said in an interview late on Wednesday.

“We have weakened them (militants) to a great extent, but I don’t see an end in the very near future, so all the burden is being shared by the F-16s and its pilots,” he said.

Skeptics suspect that Pakistan’s military is seeking an improved arsenal to counter the growing military might of India.