PAF has F-7 in service. It's short range AAM and affiliated radar can be considered obsolete and waste of resources to maintain and fly a squadron. Yet its in service and offers lesser capability than Mirage.Such a large waste of resources to use one missile in this day and age. 2 jets, 2 pilots and 1 weapon system operator to do what one single Babur or read or storm shadow can do.
All this from the mirages has to be done with line of sight aswell as they need to be guided to the target and the ew jamming/self defence capabilities are limited compared to jF17/f16/j10ce etc. it’s a shame that PAF cannot afford to replace/retire them now.
With Mirages, its another option available for long range strike. A mix and match of strike package within JFT or stand alone with F-16/J-10 cover. This also helps to neutralize multiple targets when JFT squadrons are targeting tier-1 targets, Mirages can be sent for tier-2 targets. There is an inventory of H-2 and H-4 that will need to be expended at some stage.


