IANS,
Islamabad: Pakistan will upgrade its F-16 combat aircraft from early next year, a military official said Thursday.
“We will upgrade our F-16s under a programme called Mid Life Updates (MLUs) at our air bases,” Air Vice Marshal Shehzad Hassan Chaudhry told DPA.
He said the process would commence early next year, adding that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) will buy spares from the US and other sources for the purpose.
Pakistani experts are already overhauling F-100 engines of the multi-role jets at the country's premier aeronautical complex, some 70 km northwest of here.
“We are now capable of completely upgrading the jets indigenously,” said Chaudhry, who is also the deputy chief of the PAF operations department.
He said commencement of the programme would coincide with the arrival of two more F-16s which the US is to deliver free of cost to the PAF in December.
“I recently headed a team of experts to the US to discuss modalities for early delivery of the two planes, being currently flown by the US Air Force,” the official said.
He said Pakistani experts have asked the US to provide at least 75 F-16s. The exact configuration, cost and other details are being negotiated between the two countries.
