When Pakistan's Air Force was established on 15th August 1947, it had a little to fly on and few to fly that little. And even fewer places to fly from. Pakistan was allotted thirty-two Dakotas, thirty-five Tempests, twenty-nine Harvards, sixteen Tiger Moths, three Auster Vs, and even Auster VIs: most never arrived.

In the event, much of what was received was often unacceptable. Crates of equipment contained nothing but scrap of waste. Movement of material was delayed and bottlenecks created.

But few of the Air Force's 2,332 founding members - 220 officers and 2,112 airmen - under the first Air Commander, Air Vice-Marshal Allan Perry-Keene, were trained as pilots; even fewer as ground crews. Initially the headquarter was based by Peshawar. The new Air Force also took over bases at Peshawar, Risalpur, Chaklala in Rawalpindi, and Lahore.

In Karachi, Mauripur - which later became Masroor - still functioned as a Royal Air Force base under an RAF C.-in-C.: on 1 January 1948, with the RAF sharing facilities, it became a PAF base with Wing Commander Nur Khan as Station Commander. Not far away - as the Tiger Moths flew - was Drigh Road. So at first, PAF depended on no more than pure faith and sheer dedication to fly and maintain its meagre squadrons.

December 1947, besieged and isolated in their mountain strongholds, wintry wastes, high passes and valleys, the 250,000 people and soldiers in Gilgit Agency and Azad Kashmir were desperate for food and supplies.

All PAF could muster in serviceable condition were two war-weary Dakotas at Mauripur in Karachi. One flew at once to Risalpur, where it began operations under Wing Commander M.Asghar Khan, first commandant of the RPAF College. The old workhorse had spent its power in the war Its wheezing engines had to struggle to reach 10,000 feet and then struggle some more to maintain the altitude. It was not the plane to fly among the highest mountains in the world where scores of peaks, many still unsurveyed and unnamed, touch more than 20,000 feet. But there was no choice.

With its ceiling limit, the only route the Dakota could follow to Chilas, Bunji, Gilgit and Skardu - the main supply points - was the course of the narrow Indus Valley flanked on either side by mountains rising from 7,000 feet to the lofty heights of Nanga Parbat's 26,660 feet. Few planes had ever flown this route before.

Weather was unpredictable and the valleys narrow and, by any aviation standards, unnavigable. There were no weather forecasts and the only training captains and crews had were some dummy drops at Risalpur, which in no way resembled the narrow dropping zones in the valleys. These were so narrow that there was hardly room for the Dakota to turn around, and no available ground for an emergency landing.No wonder that those who undertook this exercise soon began to call the Indus 'The Valley of No Return'.

For the first run early in December, the PAF deployed both its serviceable Dakotas, laden with rice, wheat and sugar in double gunny bags of thirty-six kilos each.

The PAF crews began a daily dawn-to-dusk shuttle, the old Dakotas zig-zagging their way through the valleys and hills in rain, storm cloud, fog and blinding sunshine, which continued throughout the winter, not ending until 15 April 1948 - just two days after Quaid-i-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, visited the flying training school at their Risalpur base, and said: 'There is no doubt that any country without a strong Air Force is at the mercy of any aggressor. Pakistan must build her Air Force as quickly as possible. It must be an efficient Air Force second to none.' Supply runs began again in October 1948 and two more Dakotas had been brought into service.

Within the span of a year this young air force had flown on little more than an often turbulent wing and a prayer and yet completed 437 mercy drops, delivering more than 500 tons of supplies and foods.

Despite the lack of funds and market-places, Pakistan Air Force entered the jet age in August 1951 with the arrival of three first-generation jet fighters - British built Attackers. They formed the nucleus of the new Number 11 Squadron. Pakistan began to court the Americans, who agreed in principle to supply F-94Cs, F-86 Sabres and F-84s, the USAF's standard fighter-bomber. Finally, PAF opted for the Sabres, and also looked at the USAF's B-50 and the USN's Neptune as a bomber, but first it wanted T-33 jet trainers - the first batch of which arrived in 1955.

One year later the first Sabres arrived, in 1956, the PAF's Falcon aerobatics team was assigned sixteen of the powerful new jets - the perfect number to form a diamond shape - and after only three months practice, on 2 February 1958, created a new world record for the largest number of planes to make a formation loop, above Masroor (Mauripur) Air Base, Karachi, and an enthralled crowd of 30,000 spectators, including King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan.

Fatefully, during the ten years from 1955 to 1965, the Air Force armed its squadrons with the most modern jet fighters and bombers - battle-tested supersonic Sabres and F-104 Starfighters for its fighter aces, B-57s for its bomber pilots and the ubiquitous C-130 for its transport wing - and reached new heights of operational efficiency and skills. Its pilots so prepared, its squadrons so armed, the PAF was ready for come what may - and they showed it all to the IAF during the war of 1965.

In 1965 there can be no argument that the PAF pilots were much superior horseman in every way to those of the Indian Air Force. By 23 September when the war ended, India had lost 110 aircraft and damaged nineteen, not including those destroyed on the ground at night - against sixteen PAF planes. Of the 110, thirty-five were brought down by the Army ground fire. PAF could also claim the destruction of 149 tanks, more than 600 heavy vehicles including troop carriers, and sixty artillery guns. To corroborate its claims, after the cease-fire the PAF invited newsmen to visit bases where their squadrons were lined up, ready to be counted. Pakistan's Air Marshal Nur Khan even invited his Indian counterpart, Air Marshal Arjun Singh, to come along and see for himself. The invitation was not accepted.

The sense of commitment and self-sacrifice which exemplifies the PAF was perhaps the best demonstrated a few short months before the 1971 conflict escalated into a full-scale war by twenty-year old Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas Saheed (NH).

Still under training, Minhas was taxiing for take-off on a routine flight on 20 August 1971 when a revolting Bengali Instructor Pilot forced his way into the rear cockpit, seized control of the aircraft and took off.

Minhas, who realized that the absconding pilot was heading towards India, tried to regain control, but unable to do so. Only sixty kilometres from Indian territory, he made yet another effort to steer the aircraft back to the base. Then knowing that it meant certain death, he deliberately forced the aircraft to crash thirty-two miles short of the border. For this supreme sacrifice Pilot Officer Minhas was awarded the 'Nishan-i-Haider', the youngest ever receipient of this, the highest award for valour which Pakistan can bestow.

In December 1981, the government of Pakistan signed a letter of agreement for the purchase of 40 F-16A/B fighters for the Pakistan Air Force. The first aircraft were accepted at Fort Worth in October of 1982. Transition training for Pakistani aircrews and ground personnel was carried out by the 421st Tactical Fighter Squadron of the 388th Tactical Fighter Wing at Hill AFB in Utah. The first two F-16As and four F-16Bs arrived in Pakistan in January of 1983.

The Pakistani F-16A/Bs were all from Block 15, the final version of the F-16A/B production run. They are powered by the Pratt & Whitney F100-P W-200 turbofan. The first unit to equip with the F-16 was No. 11 Squadron based at Sargodha. All 40 of the Fighting Falcons had entered PAF service by mid-1986. This made it possible to establish two more squadrons, No.9 at Sargodha and No. 14 at Kamra. No 11 Squadron operates as the OCU.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 in support of the pro-Soviet government in Kabul which was being hard-pressed by Mujahadeen rebel forces marked the start of a decade-long occupation. Mujahadeen rebels continued to harass the occupying Soviet military force as well as the forces of the Afghan regime that it was supporting. The war soon spilled over into neighboring Pakistan, with a horde of refugees fleeing to camps across the border in an attempt to escape the conflict. In addition, many of the rebels used Pakistan as a sanctuary from which to carry out forays into Afghanistan, and a steady flow of US-supplied arms were carried into Afghanistan from staging areas in Pakistan near the border. This inevitably resulted in border violations by Soviet and Afghan aircraft attempting to interdict these operations. Between May 1986 and November of 1988, PAF F-16s have shot down at least eight intruders from Afghanistan. The first three of these (one Su-22, one probable Su-22, and one An-26) were shot down by two pilots from No. 9 Squadron. Pilots of No. 14 Squadron destroyed the remaining five intruders (two Su-22s, two MiG-23s, and one Su-25). Most of these kills were by the AIM-9 Sidewinder, but at least one (a Su-22) was destroyed by cannon fire. Flight Lieutenant Khalid Mamood is credited with three of these kills. At least one F-16 was lost in these battles, this one in an encounter between two F-16s and six Afghan Air Force aircraft on April 29, 1987. However, the lost F-16 appears to have been an "own goal", having been hit by a Sidewinder fired by the other F-16. The unfortunate F-16 pilot ejected safely.

Pakistani F-16s typically carry two all-aspect AIM-9Ls on the wing tip rails along with a pair of AIM-9Ps on the outermost underwing racks. Pakistani F-16s have an important strike role, being fitted with the French-built Thompson-CSF ATLIS laser designation pod and the capability to deliver Paveway laser-guided bombs. The ATLIS was first fitted to Pakistani F-16s in January of 1986. The F-16 became the first non-European aircraft to be qualified for the ATLIS pod.

Though the PAF is split into four divisions, the Chief of Air Staff is inevitably a fighter pilot. Every aspect of the PAF's work is devoted to keeping the planes in the air. The four divisions are operations, maintenance, administration, and electronics.

With a 1987 strength of just under 40,000 - 3,500 officers, more than 13,000 JCOs and senior NCOs and 23,000 airmen - the PAF remained Pakistan's first and most vital defence arm. Its twenty wings, including eight flying wings made up of twenty squardons, contained a total of fifty squardons.

In 1987 PAF maintained a total of 539 planes - everything from B-57 bombers and F-16 supersonic interceptor and attack jet fighters to the smaller training jets and liaison planes.

They operated from eighteen bases situated along the length and breadth of the country from south to north, east to west. On either side - in Afghan and India - this small but dedicated force is vastly outnumbered. Yet the PAF maintains constant vigilance of Pakistan's air space day and night. PAF pilots, the kings of the force, are the antithesis of the archetypal Hollywood image of an air ace: soft spoken, gracious, courteous.

The PAF is an autocracy of senior officers run like a democracy. It's a matter of pride that its success devolves on teamwork and planning - each man respected for his worth and what he can contribute. During mission briefings even the most junior pilot is consulted. All are held as equal with acknowledged and respected leaders.<.p>

No wonder the competition for places in this elite air force is intense. PAF takes its pick of the finest minds and fittest bodies in the land. Many want to join, few are chosen. Cadets are selected through a Recruitment Directorate composed of three, including a psychologist and a specialist. The highest gradings are demanded for pilot material. After a series of gruelling written and physical examinations, including study of the candidate's behaviourial tendencis, the successful ones go before a commission board for short listing and those chosen attended a final selection panel at Air Headquarters. These follows five-and-a-half years training at the PAF Academy at Risalpur.

For pilot cadets the attrition rate is high - at last one third to forty percent never fly. But they have options to choose other branches of the Air Force. It's only very near the end of all this that the cadet first takes to the air in a Pakistani-built Mushsaq single-engine trainer. For atleast ninety-nine per cent it's their very first experience of flying. Yet so thorough is their training and indoctrination that for 'most of us it's just like getting on a bicycle'. They solo after ten hours of instruction and then progress to the PAF's jet trainers before posting to Mianwali for advanced tactical training on the FT-5s. It's this that they finally become rookie fighter pilots. Of the original entry of 100 cadets perhaps only fifteen survive.

After qualifying they are posted to the PAF's A-5 and F-6 squadrons - a rare few being chosen for conversion to the more modern Mirage fighter bombers and an even rarer elite going forward for F-16 conversion. But their is no conceit among those so chosen. Their diffidence and lack of arrogance is counterpoint to their steely eyes and determination.

Three or four years later they become Flight Lieutenants and a few may opt to go to Risalpur as flying instructors. Section leaders are chosen for training at the Combat Commanders School, Sargodha, where they learn the fineness of air combat during a five month course. When they graduate, the Combat Commanders go back to their squadrons to pass on their new-found skills to their colleagues. Those that do really well are posted to the school for two years as instructors.

The camaraderie which exists between pilot and ground crew is indeed remarkable and inspiring - and the same comradeship extends throughout the PAF, which is a highly-sophisticated fighting machine.

Pakistan has discovered new depths of human skills and initiative, in the search for self-sufficiency and independence in maintaining its Armed Forces and in doing so has contributed not only to defence, but to the building of a strong industrial and economic base.

The PAF is determined to maintain its status as the air force which, pilot for pilot, has the most experienced and therefore best and most skilful in the world. These pilots, technicians and general servicemen represent the highest aviation and avionics skills in the world: by its record and its performance, in both peacetime and in war, the PAF has earned either admiration or acknowledgement from air force men around the world.

In that sense, the first forty years of the Pakistan Armed Forces, which have faced and overcome incredible military and civic challenges, stands as one of the most remarkable stories in the long, long history of men and war.

In December of 1988, Pakistan ordered 11 additional F-16A/B Block 15 OCU (Operational Capability Upgrade) aircraft, and in September of 1989, plans were announced for Pakistan to acquire 60 more F-16A/Bs. However, Pakistan has gotten involved in a controversy with the United States over its suspected nuclear weapons capability. Intelligence information reaching US authorities indicated that Pakistan was actively working on a nuclear bomb, had received a design for a bomb from China, had tested a nuclear trigger, and was actively producing weapons-grade uranium. The F-16As of Nos 9 and 11 Squadrons at Sargodha have allegedly been modified with the means of carrying and delivering a Pakistani nuclear weapon. In addition, Pakistan has steadfastly refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. As a result, in accordance to the Pressler amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act, which forbids military aid to any nation possessing a "nuclear explosive device", the United States government announced on October 6, 1990 that it had embargoed further arms deliveries to Pakistan. A total of 71 F-16s on order were affected by the embargo. By March of 1994, 22 of these planes had been placed in storage at Davis-Monthan AFB, with a further six to be stored by the end of 1994. A stop-work order affects the remaining 43 planes on the contract.

Pakistan has already paid $685 million on the contract, and insists on either having the planes it ordered delivered or getting its money back. A compromise was offered in March of 1995 allowing the delivery of some of the embargoed planes. Under the compromise, the 28 F-16s already built would be allowed to be delivered to Pakistan, plus a further ten to equal the value of the money already paid.

Pakistani F-16s were assigned USAF serial numbers for record-keeping purposes. PAF F-16s carry a three-digit PAF serial number on their noses, the F-16As being assigned numbers in sequence beginning with 701, and the F-16 Bs being assigned numbers beginning with 601. These numbers are prefixed by two digits on the tail, these prefixes indicating the year of service entry.