The painting depicts Group Captain Sattar Alvi, Officer Commanding Combat Commanders School, PAF (Pakistan’s TopGun), flying an Afghan Mig-21bis in a mock dogfight against PAF Mirages.
In late 1980s, many Afghan aircrafts including their latest SU-22s, Mig-21s defected to Pakistan. Grp Capt Sattar Alvi, who flew Syrian Mig-21s as Flt Lt. during Arab Israel war 1973 and shot down an Israeli Mirage, was tasked to fly Afghan Mig-21bis and evaluate its strengths and weaknesses to help develop air tactics accordingly. Mig-21bis at that time, was the backbone of Indian Airforce as well, so he flew various dogfight training missions against PAF F-16s, Mirages and F-6s to train PAF pilots.
On 12 September, he led another daring strike against the heavily defended Ambala airfield, penetrating intense defensive fire and successfully completing repeated bombing runs.
Flt Lt Yusuf Ali Khan nurses his damaged F-86F Sabre back to Sargodha on 3 September 1965 after surviving a 6 vs 1 melee with IAF Gnats. Later in the war, Flt Lt Yusuf would get his pound of flesh when he would shoot down an IAF Gnat flown by F/L A.N. Kale, who managed to eject safely.
Watercolor, 11 x 6 inches by aviation artist Rehan Siraj.
The image shows the damaged F-86F (S/N 553870) at Sargodha.
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