Pakistan buys 50 Mirage jets, spares from Libya
By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has purchased 50 Mirage planes, 150 sealed pack engines of these planes and huge quantity of spare parts for the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) from Libya.
The spares will cater to the needs of these fighters for the next seven to ten years. High government sources told The News on condition of anonymity that the supply of these planes, engines and spares has already begun. Wide body transport planes are bringing these equipment from Tripoli and unloading them at the PAF bases. The supply is supposed to continue till sometime. Some of the equipment will also be reaching their destination through ships.
Mirage-three and five versions are already flying for the PAF while the Mirages purchased from Libya are in both variations. The Mirages are in excellent condition but the Libyan Air Force was dormant for quite sometime due to sanctions imposed on that country and was thus not flying the planes regularly. It grounded most of these planes and now the United States and other Western countries have started lifting these sanctions. It is expected that Libyan Air Force would be reinvigorated through new type of the most sophisticated multi-role planes soon.
The PAF will examine the used planes purchased by Libya in the first place and decide about their use and air worthiness. The sources said that most of the planes would be scrapped for spare parts for the planes already in use of the PAF. The PAF badly needs spares for its planes including Mirages as they are very expensive.
Pakistan plans to upgrade and refurbish its old Mirages and acquire new radars, avionics and weapon systems for its fleet. This will be done in phases, the sources added. The purchase from Libya has been made on cash payment.
With the induction of Mirages obtained from Libya in the PAF, Pakistan would become a country having the highest number of Mirage planes with its air force even larger than the manufacturer of this type of planes, France, the sources said. Pakistan first purchased Mirage planes in the 1970s from France and then 40 old Mirages were purchased from Australia in the 1990s.
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astonished to see a deal again between libya and Pakistan after recent nuclear issues.
i think this lot will only be worth for spares for PAF
