PAF J-10CE News Updates and Discussions part ll

[rafale]

I know Wg Cmdrs at Bholari and they spend their time shuttling to Hyderabad or further to Karachi. Or family spends time at in-laws who live elsewhere. It just really is a dead place- but then so was Jacobabad.

The base has facilities but in a way the family structure of Pakistan these days with sons moving out allows daughters to come back and stay with parents for extended periods - which enables such postings even if you have "split" times away from family.

Either way, it works out even if leading to friction on and off.
For every Bholari there is a Lahore , Mauripur and so on.
Shorkot, Sargodha and others are still fairly well built out so not really that intolerable.

Also depends on what stage of your life the family is - enough PAF schools to support kids though Inter in most of these places - and by the time university arrives many officers are either in the stage for NDU or Staff college.

I know this first hand, the problem with families moving around. Some might have parallel spouse careers or other needs and they can't move.

PAF can come up with creative solutions, where pilots can get posted wherever, but their family (spouse, kids, ageing dependent parents) get PAF housing, facilities and daycares. This is literally a minimum cost benefit and will alleviate the anxiety, and as you mentioned, the occasional friction in married people. Pilots can be let off on leaves or rotated out and when needed, based on threat intelligence, to stay put at their operating base.

You can't have your top dogs in J-10CEs, F-16s, J-35s, ERIEYEs etc. carrying emotional burden. Sometimes this is even more than having a higher salary or direct monetary benefits.

 

[rafale]

Its 1 hour to hit the edge of Karachi and another 2 hours to get anywhere meaningful in Karachi

...actually 40 mins, early morning just after sunrise, if you know what you are doing.....

 

[SABRE]

My time in Bholari wasn't all that great. It was just great being around the guys, but the Base... Its Dead.

It certainly ain't NO Mushaf.

Obviously Shahbaz is well developed, but of the guys that have served in both Bases, they'd pick Bholari everytime.

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In my experience, if a PAF officer is from Karachi or, by chance, from Hyderabad, they would pick Bholari in the blink of an eye, if given a choice.

The base is claimed to be haunted, though. Would have brushed the notion aside had a very high-ranking officer not attested it.

 

[东风夜放花千树]

And what’s the reason it can’t build doctrine around highway usage?

Because airplane maintenance can't be done on the highway. Taking off and landing fighter jets on highways is just an emergency plan.

Air force bases have complete aircraft maintenance equipment and personnel, and they are protected by air defense systems. In the event of a war, it's impossible to transport all that equipment, spare parts, ammunition, fuel, personnel, and air defense systems to the highway. That would be a huge convoy and too obvious a target.

J-10 fighter jets have conducted highway takeoff and landing training in China.

 

[AeronautIR]

In a full blown war with precision strike capability using stand off weapons, there is always a possibility especially when the enemy knows PAF is their biggest challenge.

Firstly, both are nuclear powers. Secondly, India doesn't have the numbers to launch enough weapons in a single volley that can saturate all PAF runways.

 

[Yasser76]

Ask your wife if it's ok to live there.

What do you mean by that?

 

[Yasser76]

My time in Bholari wasn't all that great. It was just great being around the guys, but the Base... Its Dead.

It certainly ain't NO Mushaf.

Obviously Shahbaz is well developed, but of the guys that have served in both Bases, they'd pick Bholari everytime.

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Yeah, as Pakistan gets hotter and hotter it must make day to day life hard, not as if they can drive to Murree easily for some respite