PAF F-16 | Discussions

[ghazi52]

Congressional Record

www.congress.gov

https://www.congress.gov/119/crec/2025/12/08/171/205/CREC-2025-12-08-pt2-PgS8544-2.pdf

 

[Trailer23]

Time to change title - PAF F-16 Junks (Poor decisions now)

to

a new topic - "PAF Plans for F-35A/B and Possible Funding Solutions with Partners"

But we’ll get the J-35A/B from China (amazing deals) - yes, I know.

We should retire many older F-16s junks to make room for upgrades. The PAF Chief should know better!

O bhai ...

Could you possibly do a research on the cost of operating an F-35 per sortie.

Ye mulk aik haftay may Bankrupt ho jaey ga & we'll just park each F-35 on some Roundabout.

Har saal IMF kay darwazay pay hotay hain.

PAF will need to take a loan ever year to operate that MF.

Jo hai..., wo he IAF pay har conflict may bhari par` jata hai.

 

[Mighty_Dragon_Strike]

seems stealth drone will hunt with sixteens!
data integration will come once drone radar captures data!

 

[Blain2]

As a major Viper fanboy, I can honestly say that i'm not all too thrilled by what we're getting.

This is the kind of stuff that should've been offered to us when we helped the US evacuate their sh!t out of Afghanistan.

Have people forgotten how CH-47 flew over Karachi ...

Evacuating their people in C-17 Globemaster III & C-130's was the easy part.

It was the load that crossed into Pakistan & then shipped to various Military Bases in the GCC was where we should have been given this stuff in return.

Not sure why our leadership were asleep - at the time.

RUNians will cry even if we get a single canopy - so lets not get into that.

- Still don't know what "UPGRADES" are there gonna be for the Block 52's.

- Still don't know which ones are going through MLU.

- Why wasn't the SABR (AESA) not on the list of item ...

Because I suspect this will be followed by another notification. This one is for fleet sustainment and upgradation to current standards. Pakistan will have to fund the radar/weapons separately. However, lets see how this pans out.

People also need to keep in mind that Indian whining (aka RR in the vernacular) only goes so far. If US can/does sell weapons to Israel's potential adversaries, why/how could Hindustan get in the way of bilateral US-Pak ties? On top of that, Trump admin sees them cozying up to Russia/BRICs etc. so there are plenty of irritants in that relationship as well.

Pakistan having a strong conventional deterrence, specially with its American systems, furthers American interests in maintaining stability in South Asia. Pakistan has a weighty argument that erosion of our conventional capability increases the risks of a nuclear conflagration. Americans understand that as it is no blackmail. They saw the escalation rungs being traversed rapidly by both sides in May.

 

[Starlord]

This deal kinda remind of going into a five star super expensive restaurant where the food quality is okish at best but quantity is highly questionable, 680+ Million dollars for not a single new F-16 or even a reasonable upgrade, Gareeb Pakistani pay ker rahe hai ya American CSF ?

 

[imadul]

11 Dec 1988
Pakistan orders 11 F-16s (Peace Gate III)
Unfortunately never delivered!!!

We got food gate I.



But didn't later 18 block 50/52 kind of compensate it?

 

[Oscar]

This deal kinda remind of going into a five star super expensive restaurant where the food quality is okish at best but quantity is highly questionable, 680+ Million dollars for not a single new F-16 or even a reasonable upgrade, Gareeb Pakistani pay ker rahe hai ya American CSF ?

What do you think the value of the food is?
What is the value of the sale to Pakistani warfighting needs?

 

[Trailer23]

... 680+ Million dollars for not a single new F-16 ...

For that amount, you'd only get maybe 6 (new) F-16 off the shelf - clean.

 

[Rebirth]

I feel people arent reading the official notification correctly. It specifically mentions service life extension program to extend the life of the f-16 fleet including AM/BM well into 2040s which is huge in itself. And obviously if we are to go for v-kits on our planes we need them to actually have some service life left in them

If SLEP is approved it huge as it will add 15-20 years life to the F-16 fleet and mostly it comes with Block-70/72 upgrade package which i dont think us may offer.

 

[Blain2]

This deal kinda remind of going into a five star super expensive restaurant where the food quality is okish at best but quantity is highly questionable, 680+ Million dollars for not a single new F-16 or even a reasonable upgrade, Gareeb Pakistani pay ker rahe hai ya American CSF ?

$600M to upgrade the crucial comms/self-protection capabilities of a $3B (nominal) fleet (not including weapons etc.) is well worth it.

Ghareeb Pakistan funding this on its own is better than asking for money from the Americans for it.

 

[Dreamer]

I don't understand this notification. Couple of questions in my mind.

Don't our F-16's already have LINK-16? Why are we getting them again? and 92 of them?

And IFF equipment...why do we need new IFF equipment? What's wrong with the IFF equipment that our F-16's already have?

The deal focuses on cryptographic compliance (updating secure communication tech to meet U.S. standards) and a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) to keep the planes flying safely until at least 2040.

The total cost is $686 million, funded by Pakistan's national budget. Only $37 million is for "major defense equipment" (hardware like data links and test bombs). The rest ($649 million) covers services like software updates, training, spare parts, simulators, and logistics support.

There is no SLEP mentioned in the notification. Infact all the items included are listed in detail but there is no mention of any structural strengthening or upgrade work. Although the "policy justification" part does mention life could extend to 2040, I don't think it relates to a SLEP type upgrade.

 

[Starlord]

What do you think the value of the food is?
What is the value of the sale to Pakistani warfighting needs?

I guess it will come down to Technical details which I don't know, if they increase life of the air frames with additional software updates maintenance? But when you say warfighting how effective these upgrades will be against the primary enemy aka Indian Airforce? I mean we are already running short of front line fighters, with 1 sq of J-10CE, and JF-17's. We saw limited role of F-16's in May, so I hope that all that money which comes from a already burdened nation worth the upgrades because if not than why not just use the money to order more J-10CE ? I bet J-10CE can do everything what the F-16's can with even after the upgrades, but if its just to keep the fleet in air till 2040, than what was the other recent deal which was roughly 400ish million dollar worth about? wasn't that about the same maintenance and spares ? how is this new deal different than the previous one?

 

[Starlord]

For that amount, you'd only get maybe 6 (new) F-16 off the shelf - clean.

If these upgrades open pathway for future new/old frames to be acquired by PAF than i will say its worth it, i don't know technical details that what is coming with this upgrade but from the looks of it besides some software changes and link-16's nothing else much of significant when it comes to battling the ever growing IAF. Now if we are just increase the life of Air frames than i guess but given that deal is more than half of billion that's for a Gareeb Pakistan is a luxury.

 

[Fatman17]

We got food gate I.



But didn't later 18 block 50/52 kind of compensate it?

No. This order was for the attrition losses suffered by PAF from the initial batch of 40 aircraft. Block 50/52 came much much later.

 

[Cipher212]

686 million dollars for Link 16 radios? I wonder how they budgeted this out. Couldn't we have re-equipped an F-7 squadron with thunders for that much?