Pakistan Air Force gets first early warning aircraft

Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Tuesday received its first airborne warning and control system (AWACS), officials said.

The SAAB-2000 system was formally introduced into PAF at a ceremony held at the main air base in Kamra, some 40 kilometers northwest of the capital Islamabad.

Pakistan will get three more such systems and the second one will be made available in 2011, said Pakistan Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman at the ceremony.

He said PAF would get eighteen more F-16 fighter jets by mid-2010 among other weapons.

Suleman said the first squad of JF-17 thunder aircraft, jointly manufactured by Pakistan and China, will be deployed by June next year.

With the introduction of this state of the art system, PAF has become one of the most modern Air Forces, he said.

Source: Xinhua