Pakistan Air Force | News & Discussions

Quote of the Day
I just made a balls of it, old boy. That's all there was to it.
Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader, about his December 1931 roll performed immediately after takeoff that ended in the crash that led to the loss of both legs. He later flew fighters again, and led a wing of Spitfires during the Battle of Britain.
 
Awwad said:
Anyone has information on how many fighter pilots are on active duty in PAF ?
Click to expand...
Why would anyone in their right mind give u that info....that's a highly classified info
 
Reichmarshal said:
Why would anyone in their right mind give u that info....that's a highly classified info
Click to expand...

Not at all. What's classified in it? Should be more like a standard that how many pilot to aircraft ratio exist in the air forces. Even the USAF data is all out there and many other airforces. There is absolutely nothing CLASSIFIED in it. No one is asking where they live or actual stations lol!

As a defense enthusiast these are basic questions that arise in mind, it gives you the idea that what is the capacity of the airforce for expansion. If airforce wants to add 100 more platforms, Can it absorb that quickly, do it have enough man-power. We already know total strength of PAF personal, just don't know how many are airmen, how many are in other desk jobs and how many are pilots, trainers etc. It's okay if nobody knows any info on it. I'll pass it. Cheers!

Edit: BTW, just checked, got this info from public domain: "In March 2006, the PAF officially inducted a batch of 34 fighter pilots". So if on average 30-40 pilots are inducted per year, that already gives a fair idea. We can take an average that how long it takes from Flt-Lt to wing-commander (or average flying years) and use it with per year pilot inductions and will have the estimate on number of pilots. That's all the info I asked for. Nothing "Classified" in it.
 
Last edited:
Awwad said:
Not at all. What's classified in it? Should be more like a standard that how many pilot to aircraft ratio exist in the air forces. Even the USAF data is all out there and many other airforces. There is absolutely nothing CLASSIFIED in it. No one is asking where they live or actual stations lol!

As a defense enthusiast these are basic questions that arise in mind, it gives you the idea that what is the capacity of the airforce for expansion. If airforce wants to add 100 more platforms, Can it absorb that quickly, do it have enough man-power. We already know total strength of PAF personal, just don't know how many are airmen, how many are in other desk jobs and how many are pilots, trainers etc. It's okay if nobody knows any info on it. I'll pass it. Cheers!

Edit: BTW, just checked, got this info from public domain: "In March 2006, the PAF officially inducted a batch of 34 fighter pilots". So if on average 30-40 pilots are inducted per year, that already gives a fair idea. We can take an average that how long it takes from Flt-Lt to wing-commander (or average flying years) and use it with per year pilot inductions and will have the estimate on number of pilots. That's all the info I asked for. Nothing "Classified" in it.
Click to expand...
U got that wrong again

They did not induct 34 "fighter pilots" but they inducted "Pilots".
Now many of those pilots will make it to an active fighter sqd no one knows.....n how many will go to transport or to a rotary sqd or will not make it at all no one knows.

So ur premise for ur whole calculation is at best based on wishful thinking
 
Reichmarshal said:
U got that wrong again

They did not induct 34 "fighter pilots" but they inducted "Pilots".
Now many of those pilots will make it to an active fighter sqd no one knows.....n how many will go to transport or to a rotary sqd or will not make it at all no one knows.

So ur premise for ur whole calculation is at best based on wishful thinking
Click to expand...

Buddy, you were wrong when you said its a "confidential" info LOL! Everything isn't confidential. and about fighter pilots, I am really not interested in exact number. I just wanted idea on a ballpark figure. That is obtainable with the info I posted earlier. If you tally it with publicly available articles it matches too. So roughly it's about 2 to 3 pilots per aircraft.

theprint.in

Never mind Balakot, IAF is worse off than Pakistan Air Force on pilot strength

Compared to Pakistan Air Force’s 2.5 pilots per aircraft, the IAF is at a ratio of 1.5. The IAF also has issues with squadron strength and target practice.
theprint.in theprint.in
 
Awwad said:
Buddy, you were wrong when you said its a "confidential" info LOL! Everything isn't confidential. and about fighter pilots, I am really not interested in exact number. I just wanted idea on a ballpark figure. That is obtainable with the info I posted earlier. If you tally it with publicly available articles it matches too. So roughly it's about 2 to 3 pilots per aircraft.

theprint.in

Never mind Balakot, IAF is worse off than Pakistan Air Force on pilot strength

Compared to Pakistan Air Force’s 2.5 pilots per aircraft, the IAF is at a ratio of 1.5. The IAF also has issues with squadron strength and target practice.
theprint.in theprint.in
Click to expand...
So your source is an Indian website? And yes it's a highly classified number exactly for the reason you mentioned. We don't want our enemies to be certain about the pilot to aircraft ratio at all.
If it was such public information can you find the number of fighter pilots in IAF or USN for eg.?
 
Quote of the Day
A check ride ought to be like a skirt, short enough to be interesting but still be long enough to cover everything.
-- Unknown
 
Awwad said:
Buddy, you were wrong when you said its a "confidential" info LOL! Everything isn't confidential. and about fighter pilots, I am really not interested in exact number. I just wanted idea on a ballpark figure. That is obtainable with the info I posted earlier. If you tally it with publicly available articles it matches too. So roughly it's about 2 to 3 pilots per aircraft.

theprint.in

Never mind Balakot, IAF is worse off than Pakistan Air Force on pilot strength

Compared to Pakistan Air Force’s 2.5 pilots per aircraft, the IAF is at a ratio of 1.5. The IAF also has issues with squadron strength and target practice.
theprint.in theprint.in
Click to expand...

Everyone can make estimates - some with civilian supremacy and accountability will publish figures because of rights of taxpayers.

Pakistan is neither - it is a security state with a failed democratic system bullied by an overstretched military influence which has little to no accountability. In such a scenario paranoia and apathy drive the publication of figures.

Then, these figures are not public but usually provided to unqualified benchwarmers in the civilian ministries by design who would not understand the significance of pilot figures other than rubber stamping requirements for pension fund clearances.

So, make your best guess and read onto disclosures made.

The PAF’s focus by all disclosures and accounts is ensuring higher sortie rates than its primary foe - it strives to accomplish this with high readiness states for both aircraft and pilots - the former through high maintenance standards (barring aircraft age and murphy’s law) and the latter by having more pilots available and qualified on an airframe.

Impact of commercial aviation took some of this down in the early and late 2010s but was rectified through COVID and then PTI ministers fake licenses disclosure which basically means no one wants to employ pilots trained in Pakistan anymore.
 
GriffinsRule said:
So your source is an Indian website? And yes it's a highly classified number exactly for the reason you mentioned. We don't want our enemies to be certain about the pilot to aircraft ratio at all.
If it was such public information can you find the number of fighter pilots in IAF or USN for eg.
Click to expand...

No my "source" is not indian website lol. I said the tally of estimates from pilots passing out and average pilot span roughly equates to publicly available articles. There was few other articles mentioning the same range when I first searched it. Yes, USN & USAF pilots numbers are in public domain. Just search it and you will find it. It's not even remotely a confidential data. Canadian airforce, United kingdom, you can find about it if you search for it.

 
Bossman said:
That is for single seat jets. For transports and choppers the ratio might be higher. It is a known fact the PAF maintains a higher ratio of pilots and support staff per air craft to allow for a higher sortie rate per aircraft
Click to expand...
True 👍
 
Awwad said:
No my "source" is not indian website lol. I said the tally of estimates from pilots passing out and average pilot span roughly equates to publicly available articles. There was few other articles mentioning the same range when I first searched it. Yes, USN & USAF pilots numbers are in public domain. Just search it and you will find it. It's not even remotely a confidential data. Canadian airforce, United kingdom, you can find about it if you search for it.

Click to expand...
Those are not fighter pilot numbers though in your attachment.

The whole question is silly in itself and so are your attempt to link it with other countries. Their "openness" only extends so far. Can you tell me number of bomber pilots for the USAF fleet? Why stop there, how about specifically for the B-52 fleet, or F-22 pilots.

Anyways these numbers are highly classified for PAF (which even wants to censor serial numbers on 50yr old Mirages) so end of discussion here.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 3 (members: 2, guests: 1)

Pakistan Defence Latest

Country Watch Latest

Latest Posts

Share this page

Back
Top