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1:72 Lockheed F-16AM Block 15 MLU Fighting Flacon 92-731 No.11 Sqdn "Arrows", Pakistan Air Force(Hobbymaster)

In January 1983, the No. 11 Sqdn "Arrows" became the first Pakistan Air Force squadron to re-equip with the F-16 Fighting Falcon at PAF Base Sargodha with the introduction of the F-16A/B Block 15s.

F-16 92731(92738 earlier) was produced in August 1993 and was supposed to be a part of a 60 F-16 batch that were to be delivered under "Peace Gate IV" Program. Pakistan got involved in a controversy with the United States over its suspected nuclear weapons capability in the late 1980s. 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. Furthermore, the F-16A's of no 9 and 11 squadrons at Sargodha AB have allegedly been modified to carry and deliver 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 6th, 1990 that it had embargoed further arms deliveries to Pakistan. As a result, 11 F-16s under the Peace Gate III and 17 F-16s under Peace Gate IV meant for the PAF were embargoed and stored in the US.

On March 25th, 2005, the US Government announced that it had agreed to Pakistan's request to sell new F-16s. Initially, Pakistan has requested an additional 24 new Block 50/52 F-16C/Ds (with option for as much as 55 aircraft). As part of the package, it was also agreed that the existing fleet of older A/B models would get the MLU update.

As a sign of good gesture, the US also agreed to supply Pakistan with a number of embargoed Block 15 F-16s who where build under the Peace Gate III/IV programs.

Finally, after long series of negotiations, on September 30th, 2006 the contract was signed between the Pakistani and US government for the acquisition of 18 new F-16C/D block 52 aircraft and an option for another 18 more. In the deal the re-delivery of the 26 remaining Peace Gate III/IV aircraft was also agreed and the upgrade of those aircraft - and the remaining F-16A/B fleet - to MLU standards.

92-731 was one of the F-16s that was deliverd as part of that deal. Original a Block 15, it was upgraded t oBlock 20 MLU standards

On February 27, 2019 Pakistan initiated Operation Swift Retort in response to the Balakot airstrikes. F-16AM 92731 piloted by Wing Commander Noman Ali Khan of No.29 Sqdn PAF shot down an IAF MiG-21 Bison CU2328 piloted by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman of No.51 Sqdn IAF by firing an AIM-120C AMRAAM missile.

Later the F-16 received a kill mark located on the side of the fuselage near the left nose cone.

Arrows - past & present
No.11 Sqdn used to operate Shenyang F-6As from 1966 to 1983, before re-equipping with F-16s.












With the Hobbymaster F-16C Block 52 - Falcons & Arrows

Yes, the Westerners were not willing to believe that the same Soviet build jets that got thrashed badly at the hands of the Israelis and were rated to be inferior to their western counterparts could perform so well in battle. Just goes on it prove that it about the man behind the machine and not just the machine! In fact, there is a book titled Moonlight Marauders by Air Marshal Teshter Master which details the story of accurate strikes deep inside Pakistan by IAF MiG-21d and Su-7s during the 1971 war. The Americans believed that these fighters were guided by a Tu-126 Moss to and back from the targets. They could not believe that IAF fighters could strike Pakistan in pitch dark nights every night.


The story of IAF MiG21s and Su-7s carrying out night strikes with an unexpected degree of accuracy has been well described by Air Marshal TJ Master. One of the problems while coming back to base was locating it!! The reason was that there was a total blackout in Punjab on both sides of the border, hence no visual guidance of passing towns. All navigation aids had been switched off lest the PAF use those signals to home on to our bases. To top it all, the aircraft returned at low level to avoid interception on the getaway, which reduced RT range to a point where the ATC could not give 'homing' on the radio transmission. This last shortcoming was overcome in a novel manner. Read my personal experience in this regard.

SPARROW OR MOSS

"Frisky Sparrow, recover at Bamboo" or "Ramesh, one five two to Greenhouse". Just a few words spoken into the black ether, in the dead of night. They probably meant little to the uninitiated but made a big difference to the intended recipients of the messages. In fact, the difference between safe recovery or ejecting, possibly in enemy territory.

A few days into the 1971 war, TACDE a newly raised unit, had been given the unique task of carrying out harassment strikes against a number of PAF airfields and other targets in order to keep them occupied and awake at night. The MiG-21 and Su-7 aircraft of TACDE were no different from those in use in other operational squadrons, which meant that the only nav equipment on board were the KCI (Gyro Compass) and a stop watch. The paper map with MTI (Moving Thumb Indicator) was of little use in the dark environs of a single-seater. The radio compass was also of no use as all MF beacons were switched off. The pilots used to spend the day resting or memorizing the routes and timings marked on their maps so at night they could navigate with their eyes closed, almost literally.

The fuel of the T-77 and Su-7 was limited and often targets lay at, or even beyond, the computed Radius of Action. Thus, after the strikes the procedure was to head for the closest friendly base, usually Amritsar, Halwara or Adampur. These were touch-and-go recoveries with such low residual fuel levels that it often precluded even a single circuit before landing. There was no room for error nor any chance of diverting in the event of the recovery airfield being unavailable.

The problem was accentuated by the fact that the entire route was flown at low level in order to evade enemy radar and interception. But this meant that our returning aircraft would be equally undetectable by own radars, as well as being out of R/T range. The difficulty and the discomfort level of the pilots is easy to imagine. The lack of prior experience in the night strike role, the lack of nav aids, total black-out conditions on the ground, the low recovery fuel were enough to tax even the superior breed of pilots who formed the core of TACDE.

The 'SPARROW' missions came about as a result of a couple of near losses due to the difficulties faced by TACDE pilots in locating the recovery base. Of course, the obvious suggestion was for the returning aircraft to climb by a few hundred meters for identification and getting a homing, but was ruled out as quite often a PAF Mirage-III or F-104 would be tailing the strike aircraft, waiting for it to pop up high enough for a shot above the ground clutter on the airborne interception radar.

However, a quick analyses of these missions revealed something unique. Apparently, Amritsar ATC was able to receive the incoming RT call or at least the 'side-tone' (ie only signal, no voice) of the ac calling and even had a ADF indication on it, but its own transmission could not be heard by the ac. Also, in the charged atmosphere of the war no one was willing to give a ‘Homing’ without authentication and certainly not merely on an unidentified R/T side-tone. Clearly the requirement was for a radio relay.

It was therefore decided to place a fighter at an altitude of 9-10 km to pass messages between the radar and the ac returning from the strike mission. The code word for these missions was 'SPARROW'. This task fell on the shoulders of the 1 Sqn Tigers located at Adampur and equipped at that time with MiG21 Type 77 aircraft. The job of the 'Sparrow' was to relay 'homings' (ie course to fly in order to reach the airfield) and other recovery information to the strike pilots (eg availability of the airfield).

To conserve air effort, Sparrow missions invariably flew at endurance speed (a designated low speed) which made them sitting ducks against enemy action. But they were positioned well away from the border and under positive radar cover and therefore safe from PAF interference.

About 30 Sparrow missions were flown by Tigers during the 14-day war, each lasting over an hour and often "controlling" 2-3 night strike aircraft to safe landing. Gradually, we evolved our own code words. First names were used extensively and the transmissions had plenty of references to Frisky (Verma), Ben (Brar), Pat (Patney), Ramesh (late Kadam) and so on. Recovery airfields were identified by their confidential call signs or sometimes even the name of the Station Commander. Homing & diversion information was passed using these simple codes. The Sparrow concept was a simple and highly effective innovation.

I flew 7 Sparrow missions, all of them well after midnight. All the radar units pitched in to help recover the returning fighters, using electronic tricks and anomalous propagation of the winter inversion layer to the maximum. Often, the controllers used the Sparrow to relay messages to other aircraft and even to other radar stations. With this Sparrow soon became aware of the complete air situation in a large volume of air space.

Thus it was with some amusement that I greeted the PAF claim, some years later, that the Low Level night strikes by TACDE in Dec 1971, which turned out to be more successful than the planners had imagined, were controlled by Soviet provided “MOSS” AEW aircraft!

(Author's note : This article was penned a few years after the events of Dec 71, while the memory was still fresh - and the memory cells were not as slow as they are today!! ;))

****

Added a few more models to my collection
Westland sea king 1/48
C130J-30 1/72 scale
Mi-26 1/72 scale

The super Hercules is going to be a special build due to its size and extended fuselage version and the funny part is the Mi-26 (55.5 cm) is still longer than the C130J (47.8 cm). :coldsweat

The sea king if built with the tail rotor boom & main rotors folded would be ideal if some parts can be scratch built else will stick to the original colour scheme when they first came in the early 1970's.

Fantastic story! Thank you for sharing!

I can’t begin to think what it must be like, flying low level in a fighter jet in the pitch dark without navigation instruments.

Jeroen

Thank you Sir, on behalf of all Team BHP aviation enthusiasts, for sharing these first person accounts of the 1971 air war. It is a joy to read your account. It is our good fortune to have you. Please share more accounts as you deem fit. Most of the writers here are below 40/45 years of age except Jeroen & I who are in our mid-sixties. So you are teaching the next generation.

Sandesh, Your battle tanks rock - both of them. And thank you for sharing the story of the Battle of Dong Ha. You really take pains with your dioramas and photos. With tanks I've always wondered how three men and a huge gun fit into that 8 feet diameter turret ring!

Thanks to you we get PAF aircraft scale models onto our thread. Only you are large hearted enough and dedicated enough to this hobby. Foxbat & I ain't there yet. :-) The F-16 broke so much new ground when it first flew in 1974 as the GD YF-16. It looked like something from outer space with its blended fuselage-wing, leading edge root extension, that all round canopy, FBW and 1:1 thrust to clean weight ratio.....You are going to need a new show case my friend.

Just ordered 5 models via Darshan and another 4 via Basu. After my cancer treatment concludes {hopefully, fingers crossed} I plan to be back in business with a vengeance. :-)

Wish you well and a speedy recovery Sir. regards

Too true! And it looked absolutrstunning in its original General Dynamics livery! I was in my mid teens at the time. And a very keen and enthusiastic plane model builder and aircraft spotter. My next door neighbour Ernst Paul and I travelled all over the Netherlands to the various airforce basis, for plane spotting, shows and so on.

We were also members of an aviation society that would organise trips to airshows all over Europe, but also visit various aviation manufacturers and so on.

I can’t quite remember, but Ernst Paul and I were there, either at Paris or Farnborough when the F16 made its debut! We were still shooting analogue film of course, very expensive too. Never the less we came home with hundreds of images of the F16.

A couple years later, Fokker at Schiphol started an F16 assembly line for the Dutch F16s. We went to visit it several times.

Jeroen

Hello sir, absolutely thrilling to hear about your experiences from the 1971 war, as you know the Indian military is very secretive in disseminating information and when they do, its only for a lucky selected few.

As Mr. Narayan rightly said most of us are in our early/mid 40s and being a group of enthusiasts are very keen to know about these things, PAF officer Sajjad Haider wrote a decent book "flight of the falcons" describing his experiences during the 1965 & 1971 wars where he rubbished M.M.Alams 5 hunter shootdown by 1 sabre story. I would like to know if more people like yourself could do podcasts and regale us with your experiences, i'm certain you will have a extremely keen and willing audience?

https://youtu.be/xiFkhr5ZHgU?si=ZXIbKOMTZqz_2QfB

Above is from a legendary IAF MiG25R pilot Air Mrshl. Sumit Mukherjee, apparently the only pilot world wide to have flown & commanded all types of MiG aircrafts & squadrons (21,23,25,27,29). Do listen towards the end when he let the then RAF chief fly the MiG29UB, absolutely delightful narration.

Thank You Sir. Another PAF model should be joining the Indo-Pak fleet next month hopefully.

The dual tone grey livery on PAF F-16s look very nice. I also love the fact that the Pakistanis proudly display squadron insignias on most of their aircraft. Not only does it add to the coolness factor, a lot of pride is also associated with it.

:cool:

Kudos to you sir.

As someone who cleared AFCAT & PABT but failed to clear the SSB selection program, this post is a sad reminder of how different my life would have been.

Sure, I would not have been earning as much as I do today, but It would have been a lot more meaningful.

Using Sk8r's post as a reference point to share data. My post is not aimed at @Sk8r or his income.

All,

Payscales in the Armed Forces are now quite good. And when you add to that the accommodation, canteen facility, medical cover, club facility, sports facility etc it is a very reasonable package. Add to that the often very short commute to work and the community spirit living within the cantonment/station/base it is IMHO a good deal today. Wages of the Armed Forces reached their nadir in the late 1970s to early 1990s period but successive pay commissions have made a real difference. My father retired 35 odd years ago. In real terms the widow's pension my mother (now 90) gets today is more than the buying power of his last drawn salary in the late 1980s. Which brings us to the question of the burden of pensions on the defence budgets. My Late father served for 39 years and between him and my mother they have drawn pension for 35 or 36 years!

1:72 Panavia Tornado GR.1A Royal Air Force No.2 (AC) Sqn, ZA371, Norway, 1995(Hobbymaster)

Designed in collaboration with Britain, West Germany and Italy, the two seater Panavia Tornado attack & reconnaissance fighter was first flown on August 14th, 1974 and is thought by many to be the most important military aircraft in Western European history. Nicknamed "The Flying Fin" because of its large tail fin and the "Tonka" by the British, the Tornado has a variable wing sweep design and is capable of taking off and landing on short airstrips. It is equipped with terrain-following radar, which allows for hands-off, low-level flight in any weather. There are three primary versions: an electronic combat/reconnaissance version( Tornado ECR), an interceptor (Tornado ADV) and a highly versatile strike fighter-bomber capable of carrying almost all of NATO's air-launched weapons(Tornado GR.1-4).

For shorter take-off and landing distances, the Tornado can sweep its wings forwards to the 25-degree position, and deploy its full-span flaps and leading edge slats to allow the aircraft to fly at lower speeds. These features, in combination with the thrust reverser-equipped engines, give the Tornado excellent low-speed handling and landing characteristics.

The RAF Tornado made its combat debut as part of Operation Granby, the British contribution to the Gulf War in 1991. This saw 49 RAF Tornado GR1s deploy to Muharraq Airfield in Bahrain and to Tabuk Air Base and Dhahran Airfield in Saudi Arabia.18 Tornado F3s were deployed to provide air cover, the threat of their long range missiles being a deterrent to Iraqi pilots, who would avoid combat when approached. Early on in the conflict, the GR1s targeted military airfields across Iraq, deploying a mixture of 450 kg (1,000 lb) unguided bombs in loft-bombing attacks and specialised JP233 runway denial weapons. On 17 January 1991, the first Tornado to be lost was shot down by an Iraqi SA-14 missile following a failed low-level bombing run

During Operation Granby in the First Gulf War, Flt Lt Nichol's first mission, on 17 January 1991, was part of a formation on an ultra-low-level Strike sortie against Ar Ruma his Panavia Tornado GR1 that was being flown by his pilot Sqn Ldr John Peters. Their Tornado ZD791 was critically damaged by n Iraqi shoulder-launched SA-14 surface-to-air missile, and both ofbthem were captured by Iraqi forces.

After capture both Peters & Nichol was shown, bruised, on Iraqi television. They were tortured in the Abu Ghraib prison. They were released by the Iraqis at the end of the Gulf War.

On 19 January, another RAF Tornado was shot down during an intensive raid on Tallil Air Base. The impact of the Tornado strikes upon Iraqi airfields is difficult to determine.[215][216] A total of six RAF Tornados were lost in the conflict, four while delivering unguided bombs, one after delivering JP233, and one trying to deliver laser-guided bombs.

No.2 (AC - Army Co-operation) Squadron
No.II (AC) Squadron received their first Tornados by mid-December 1988. During "Operation Desert Storm" the unit performed was awarded "Battle Honors".

Tornado GR.1A
The Tornado GR.1 was the first Tornado version to enter service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1982. The RAF used the Tornado from the 1980s until 2019.

The Tornado GR.1A was a dedicated reconnaissance version of the GR.1 with the 27 mm cannons being replaced with sideways looking infrared sensors and another forward looking sensor being placed under the fuselage. It also had the capability to carry reconnaissance pods under the fuselage.

The GR.1A has no canon so reconnaissance equipment could be mounted. There were 30 GR.1As built and ZA371/C serial 172/BS053/3085 was one. For NATO Arctic Exercises in Norway a temporary white paint covers the usual green.

General characteristics
Crew: 2
Length: 16.72 m (54 ft 10 in)
Wingspan: 13.91 m (45 ft 8 in) at 25° sweep
Swept wingspan: 8.60 m (28 ft 3 in) swept at 67° sweep
Height: 5.95 m (19 ft 6 in)
Wing area: 26.6 m2 (286 sq ft)
Empty weight: 13,890 kg (30,622 lb)
Gross weight: 20,240 kg (44,622 lb)
Powerplant: 2 × Turbo-Union RB199-34R Mk 103 afterburning 3-spool turbofan, 43.8 kN (9,800 lbf) thrust each dry, 76.8 kN (17,300 lbf) with afterburner

Performance
Maximum speed: 2,400 km/h (1,500 mph, 1,300 kn) at 9,000 m (30,000 ft)
1,482 km/h (921 mph; 800 kn) IAS near sea level
Maximum speed: Mach 2.2
Combat range: 3,148 km (1,956 mi, 1,700 nmi) Combat radius Hi-Lo-Hi >850 nmi (>1574 km), combat radius Lo-Lo-Lo >500 nmi (>926 km), Hi-Hi-Hi with 1 hour loiter >700 nmi (> 1296 km)
Ferry range: 3,890 km (2,420 mi, 2,100 nmi)
Service ceiling: 15,240 m (50,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 77 m/s (15,100 ft/min)
Wing loading: 767 kg/m2 (157 lb/sq ft)
Thrust/weight: 0.77

Armament
Guns: deleted
Hardpoints: 3 × under-fuselage and 4 × under-wing pylon stations[e] with a capacity of 9,000 kg (19,800 lb), with provisions to carry combinations of:
Missiles:
2 × AIM-9 Sidewinder (AIM-9B / AIM-9G / AIM-9L) (GR.1) or AIM-132 ASRAAM air-to-air missiles for self-defence (GR.4)
12 × Brimstone air-to-surface missile; or
2 × Storm Shadow cruise missile
9 × ALARM anti-radiation missile
Bombs:
5 × 500 lb (230 kg) Paveway IV; or
3 × 1,000 lb (450 kg) (UK Mk 20) Paveway II/Enhanced Paveway II; or
2 × 2,000 lb (910 kg) Paveway III (GBU-24)/Enhanced Paveway III (EGBU-24); or
BL755 cluster bombs; or
Up to 2 × JP233 or MW-1 munitions dispensers (for runway cratering operations)
Up to 4 × B61 or WE.177 tactical nuclear weapons
Other: Up to 4 × drop tanks for ferry flight/extended range/flight time

Avionics
RAPTOR aerial reconnaissance pod
Rafael LITENING targeting pod; or
TIALD laser designator pod
GEC Sky Shadow electronic countermeasure pod
BOZ counter-measures pod









































250 Kg GP bombs, 2250L Drop tanks and 2 X AIM-9 Sidewinders for self defense


Sky Shadow ECM pod


BOZ Chaff/Flare dispenser pod








Notice the IR sensors on the underside of the aircraft near and behind the nose landing gear door. On the GR.1A, these sensors replaced the Mauser BK-27 of the GR.1.

clap:
Another first class addition to your fleet. Well sculpted as expected from Hobby Master. The Panavia Tornado along with the Saab Viggen was indeed the first generation of MRCA's designed ab initio as such and by the 1970s and 1980s the avionics had started to catch up to be truly an MRCA.The aircraft had a lot of developmental potential. In the hands of the Americans or Russians it would have enjoyed that. In Europe the Eurofighter was adequate for all roles and the European countries did not see the need for a true fast lo-lo-lo strike fighter. It was the first true multi-country big jet fighter to see successful squadron service and a very reliable machine. Lo-Lo-Lo clean it could outrun the mighty F-15 and all Soviet fighters. 800 knots at sea level is insane! The climb rate quoted of 77metres/second sounds like an MTOW figure.

As always your photography is outstanding.