Pakistan in talks with US to procure latest F-16 jets: Air chief

E-Paper | May 02, 2026

ISLAMABAD: Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman on Monday said Pakistan is in negotiations with the United States to procure the latest F-16 fighter jets, but did not specify an exact number.

“We are in talks with US defence officials to get some latest F-16s but the deal may take some time,” the Air chief said while talking to reporters after the rolling out ceremony of the 16th JF-17 Thunder aircraft at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) Kamra.

The Air chief said by the year 2020, Pakistan Air Force will say “goodbye to some of its old fighter jets including the Mirage.”

He expressed satisfaction over the production and quality level of the JF-17 Thunder and said it is at par with the F-16 in terms of performance and operations.

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Naseer Bhatti

Dec 28, 2015 05:08pm

Great going Pakistan Air Force under the leadership of Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman.

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M. Emad

Dec 28, 2015 05:11pm

What is the problem with home made JF-17 Thunder aircrafts ?

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Shoaib

Dec 28, 2015 05:12pm

If jf17 in par with f16 then why to buy new f16s

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Umar

Dec 28, 2015 05:14pm

We will never spend on education that is for sure.

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Shiraz

Dec 28, 2015 05:15pm

@M. Emad No problem. The two machines are for slightly different needs. The current F-16s are a sort of an interdiction platforms.

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Shiraz

Dec 28, 2015 05:22pm

If the PAF is really negotiating for more F-16s, its the right time to hit the iron as the production line for F-16s is due to close soon to give a boost to production of F-35s, the election is closing in and at the moment, the production numbers for F-16s are low, hence a quick order and delivery is possible. Anything less then 50-60 aircraft via FMS will be a bad decision. An additional 54 F-16s will give us 2 complete wings at Jacobabad or 1 each at Jacobabad and the new air base being built at Jamshoro. With 36 aircrafts at each base, the defence of Sindh will be impregnable, still not counting the JF-17s at Masroor... In case the FMS is not available, another 18 aircraft squadron for Jacobabad will still serve the purpose well.

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sandeep

Dec 28, 2015 05:23pm

With these F16 now Poor people can sleep peacefully and their hunger will be fed

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Muhammad Arshad

Dec 28, 2015 05:23pm

Great News Blk2 number 16 rolls out and Blk 2 number 29th will have first AFR

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Justice

Dec 28, 2015 05:28pm

I think it's time that Pakistan went for something else than F16's. No need to be dependent on US or just one country for it's aircraft fleet. US Congress has always been a stumbling block where Pakistan is concerned and from experience spares etc are not supplied if Pakistan doesn't toe US's policy. No need to get leftovers cos PAF is one of the best in the world. Learn from India' new policy regarding upgrading their Air Force fleet ie. now buying Rafel from France with the possiblity of assembling the aircraft's in India, also US aircraft plus already have Russian. This appraoch will keep all of these countires on their toes.

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Riaz

Dec 28, 2015 05:36pm

If indeed as we are told, JF17 Thunder is at par with F16 and it is produced at a much lower, than why the need to buy latest F16 fighters, unless ofcourse the are supperior in performence. If we cannot produce enough in time, the Chinese will gladly fill the gap buy producing to our requirement.

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Taimoor Khan

Dec 28, 2015 05:44pm

PAF obsession with f-16 and single engine fighter is mind boggling. It is the best time to ditch America and embrace Russia and buying twin engine SU-35 will be ideal given the present Geo-political environment.

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Factual

Dec 28, 2015 05:59pm

JF-17 and F-16 are two different categories of aircraft and are used for different roles. There are some tasks that F-16 can not do and some that JF-17 can't. It is good to have some options for our forces.

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jess

Dec 28, 2015 06:00pm

F16 is a 30 yr old plane. y wud pak spend millions on that?

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Rahul Singh

Dec 28, 2015 06:03pm

So IAF cut down number of Rafales for so called inferior HAL Tejas and PAF increased the number of inferior F16 over superior JF17 and same superior plane yet to be inducted into actual manufacturing country.

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Haroon

Dec 28, 2015 06:04pm

One New F16 will cost around 80 million US Dollars. The same amount should be utilized to further the Research and Development of JF-17 in Pakistan. I have no idea that what is the romance of PAF with F-16s.? Why not you can concentrate on the local project of JF17 to upgrade them to the extent that they could compete with the F-16s.?

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Haroon

Dec 28, 2015 06:07pm

Americans have recently realized that Pakistan is in talks with Russia to acquire fifth generation Su-35. So America jumped on the bandwagon so that PAF will not acquire the 5th generation technology and will be happy with the fourth generation F16s.

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Dec 28, 2015 06:14pm

So Jf-17 is at par with f-16 but we still want the latter?? Doesn't send out a good message about the jf-17 does it?

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rathorew

Dec 28, 2015 06:26pm

If the home-made JF-17 is a match for the American-made F-16 and is much cheaper, why are we trying to procure the latter? The fact is that the JF-17 is not in the same class as the F-16, and the Air Force commander knows it.

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Shobhit

Dec 28, 2015 06:28pm

Not thinking before speaking at all. If its at par with JF17, buy more JF 17.

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rathorew

Dec 28, 2015 06:29pm

@Justice Trying to maintain three types of aircraft will be a nightmare and completely uneconomic, as we will not be able to purchase sufficient quantities of any one type to benefit from economies of scale.

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Something Fishy

Dec 28, 2015 06:29pm

@sandeep I really appreciate your worries about Pakistani poor people. Are there no one left in India to worry about? Specially about recent - actually sada-bahar- purchases of weapons by India from Russia?

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Steve Boston

Dec 28, 2015 06:33pm

If JF-17 is at par with F-16, then why waste precious foreign exchange on those lousy F-16.

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rahul

Dec 28, 2015 06:35pm

F16 is currently not ordered by any Airforce in the world. And the production of this crafts are coming to halt. Why pak is investing in old ones.. there are lot of more o options like Rafale, Euro fighter, Sukhoi etc. Sapare part will be a big prob. specially wid america , You need to to lick congress to get it every year. Plus India is dealing S400 air defence. F15 is worst for those types of defence and is proven many times by Russia... Millions in pocket of defence minister

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Shiraz

Dec 28, 2015 06:36pm

@sandeep yes, that's for sure, the same way MMRCA and LCA are going to materialize it...

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naveed

Dec 28, 2015 06:37pm

PAF should change its strategy,instead of manufacturing JF17 they should reverse engineer the F16 block52 aircraft and produce maybe thirty planes per year for the next 15 years,we will have achieved many purposes,standardisation of equipment wherein there will only be a single type of plane for training and maintenance,newer planes and higher quality than our current lot.This requires hard work,perseverence,dedication,long term planning

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N.Sid

Dec 28, 2015 06:53pm

@jess Its like saying toyota corolla is a 50 year old car. They keep on updating avionics, engineering on F-16 with block-52 and block-60 new models. One new block-60 can easily cost about 80 million USD, five time the price of older F-16.

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iamsid

Dec 28, 2015 06:56pm

Most advance air forces are in favour of twin engine air superiority multi role aircrafts Eg:- Rafale, Eurofighter, F-35 Lightning. The reason being they are 2/3rd the cost of single engine aircraft but half the effectiveness. Now since India acquiring Rafale as its strike aircraft which is pretty high tech , I beg to understand why are we still stuck on a old platform like F-16 while we are able to produce similar aircraft internally !! I hope PAF thinks about 20 years ahead before inducting any aircraft because with changing geo political scenario we should match our arsenal with our arch rival in terms of technology and quality.

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Black Warrant

Dec 28, 2015 07:09pm

@sandeep We can feel and understand your "sincere sympathies" for the poor people of Pakistan, Thanks anyway.

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Black Warrant

Dec 28, 2015 07:10pm

@Rahul Singh Well Tejas have been rejected by IAF. Please update your information.

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A Troll From Nowhere

Dec 28, 2015 07:14pm

@GA F-16 brings with it the lastest avionics which definitely JF-17 Thunders lack vis-a-vis F-16. JF-17 Thunder would be the workhorse. For high-tech based dangerous missions, F-16 would be the first choice. Besides, Pakistan does not need to spend a lot of money for building infra-structure to maintain it. The best thing about this aircraft is the fact that it still is one of the best fighter.

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A Troll From Nowhere

Dec 28, 2015 07:17pm

@rahul F-16 will remain in service for next two decades. That shows how sturdy, dependable, and reliable this jet is. The greatest advantage in buying F-16 is low operating cost f0r PAF since we already have a very good infra-structure for this jet. Besides we have a great friend Turkey that have excellent command on upgrade and maintenance of jet. So in future we will have no shortage of spare parts for this aircraft.

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Taemoor

Dec 28, 2015 07:18pm

There is nothing wrong with thunders. The reason to buy f16 is the same why every major airforce in the world has diversity and variety. Also we have great skill and resources to maintain f16 due to oir long history with them. Third is to have both US and Russian tech in the arsenal at the same time. These are good reasons among other to buy f16 or any other quality craft.

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A Troll From Nowhere

Dec 28, 2015 07:18pm

@naveed JF-17 is indeed, a sort of, reverse engineering of F-16. A good decent jet that will serve the purpose of a lethal workhorse supporting F-16s in war.

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dawn

Dec 28, 2015 07:36pm

To procure from USA? USA," You can have the f-16s if you do this that or the other for us?" There will be conditions.

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Sunil

Dec 28, 2015 07:50pm

Doubt the US senate will pass for the sale of F-16 to Pakistan, since the California Sen Bernadine shootings.

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K RAMANI

Dec 28, 2015 08:13pm

@Shoaib exactly

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Mahmood

Dec 28, 2015 08:13pm

The Air Chief must have mis-spoken. If JF-17 is as good as F-16 in terms of capability and performance, than purely on cost-value proposition, there would be a production backlog of thousand of these jets, and buyers would be lining up to sign new orders. Why would therefore anyone buy one F-16 for the same cost as Five JF-17s? Considering Pakistan has yet to deliver one single plane to any viable buyer outside of Pakistan, speaks for itself.

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Pakistani

Dec 28, 2015 08:41pm

@jess you ignorance is laughable please so some research they are newer blocks and note pls that f-16 is USA's 3rd best fighter plane still

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Jehan zeb

Dec 28, 2015 09:04pm

if The Thunders are at par in performance with F16 why Pak would be interested in its purchase?

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Naveed

Dec 28, 2015 09:17pm

The F-16 is a good aircraft but JF-17 can be just as good and cheaper with proper avionics and standoff weapons, plus its locally produced.

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Abdulla Hussain

Dec 28, 2015 09:34pm

@M. Emad: There is no problem, like different tools are required to work on a product, a variety of aircrafts are required to counter any undesirable offensive.

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kashif

Dec 28, 2015 09:48pm

jf17 in par with f16 but we need f16 which is not only costly 12 times then jf17 but also assembled out of the country what does it mean ? what a message does it give about our own created jf17? it clearly mean that jf17 is not par with f16 that's why our military is no sign in ranking on top 10 powerful military in the world in 2015 but in this ranking India in on forth rank and turkey is also included in this ranking

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Syed Mustafa Hussain

Dec 28, 2015 09:54pm

Common on, F-16's era is over now. Now future is of stealth.

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Karachiite

Dec 28, 2015 10:29pm

This love of weapons has already made us bankrupt and will lead us to a point of no return. Compare the GDP defense spending of Pakistan with other developing nations and consider the resources, size and revenue.

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Poirot

Dec 28, 2015 10:35pm

If JF 17 is at par with the F16, then why try to get F16s????

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anony

Dec 28, 2015 10:39pm

Long live Pakistan.

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faisal

Dec 28, 2015 11:51pm

Pakistan should go for Russian Jets and adhere to more open architecture than locking themselves up with American hardware.

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Zak

Dec 28, 2015 11:52pm

@M. Emad can't roll them fast enough, now 4 other countries want them ASAP. So we will get F 16

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salman

Dec 28, 2015 11:58pm

@M. Emad The F-16 has decades of experience and is battle tested. It has over seventy kills in air to air combat without sustaining a single loss. JF 17 is good but still it is not as capable as the F-16 in terms of range, payload, radar and other avionics. The PAF F-16s are already carrying the JHMCS which is still to be integrated in the block 3 thunders. F-16 is still the front line fighter of the PAF. JF 17 gives us independence and there are certain missiles which are not integrated with the F-16 but with the JFT like the c 802A and cm 400 AKG. In one vs one JF 17 can bring down the F-16 but F-16 still has the edge

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Naveen

Dec 29, 2015 01:14am

@Zak As always Yu are hilarious Which other countries? How many aircrafts? Why so secretive? May be Some small country considering buying one aircraft now that's a whose burden on the production line

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Nasrullah Khan -USA

Dec 29, 2015 01:27am

At what cost?

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Muzaffar Ali

Dec 29, 2015 01:33am

Why?

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MALIK

Dec 29, 2015 01:35am

Nothing to eat , No school to study , No hospital to treat within miles but we need state of the art F 16's (The expensive one's ) so our brave pilots can enjoy the latest fighter jet. Counter argument would be "we need a solid air defence" to protect 50% illiterate poverty zadda nation. Long live deliberate wrong strategies for PAF self existence. You don't hire a trained commando standing outside your house if you live in Korangi and got no money in the safe or you are living on borrowings.

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Khwarezmi

Dec 29, 2015 01:36am

PLEASE no more expensive sanctuon prone US weapon systems. Let us focus on JF-17 and a 5th generation fighter from China. Have we LEARNT nothing from the sanction years when we could not get spareparts for our F-16s?

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Ali

Dec 29, 2015 01:37am

United States in 2005 signed a contract to provide 36 latest F-16 C/Ds to PAF during President Musharaf's tenure. However, due to massive earthquake, PAF opted to induct 18 F-16s as funds were needed for earthquake relief. It's these 18 remaining F-16s being acquired now. The PAF has 79 F-16s presently, compared to Turkish Air Force 270 F-16s, Egyptian Air Force 220 F-16s, UAE Air Force 80 F-16s, even US enemy Iraq was given 18 F-16s with another 18 on order. Over 4,500 F-16s have been delivered to 27 countries. Nevertheless, Indian lobby in USA will squeal and protest, despite India's massive weapons acquisitions from USA, Europe and Russia.

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Ram Lal

Dec 29, 2015 02:34am

It's great to see "Indians" are so concerned about poor & hungry people in Pakistan. This is what a true neighbor is all about! Shikarpur, Sindh.

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D_H

Dec 29, 2015 02:50am

@Riaz , Pakistan has a stock pile of nuclear arsenal that was designed to be delivered by F-16s. This is way before Pakistan started to invest in ballistic missiles. Hence the need to buy more F-16s.

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Hamza

Dec 29, 2015 02:52am

Many comments have been asking what is the reason? Here is the reason F-16 block 52 forms the backbone of the USAF, and it has specific advantages over the JF-17 namely speed and payload.

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Ajaz

Dec 29, 2015 02:54am

Why Pakistan needs F16 when we can produce produce indigenous JF 17 at 1/3 of the price with the similar capabilities. Why not support our indigenous industries engineers, scientists and work force. Beside we would be sending mixed signals to the potential buyer countries and take away their confidence, if we show reliance on USA made planes. Chief Marshal Aman please consider all aspects of you of your decisions, before press release. Thank you very much.

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Jangli

Dec 29, 2015 03:20am

We don't need jets but hyper sonic missiles. And an advanced anti stealth radar system. If we want jets, then we should only focus on developing them our selves, Pakistan should developed its defence industry with commercial prospect! Why not focus on high tech UAVs?

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A Shah

Dec 29, 2015 03:26am

Instead of arming our children with books we are giving them guns and bullets.

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pervez

Dec 29, 2015 03:27am

Whats wrong with PAF. J20 then j31 then su35 and now f16 again ?

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mohammad khan

Dec 29, 2015 04:10am

F 16 r 30 yrs old and like White Elephant cost wise & maintenance.Pakistan claims about F17 Thunder at par with F16.If is true,why to buy expensive and old F 16.Instead with the help of China or France, produce yourself as ground techniques and facilities r available in Risalpur or can b upgraded.I believe,France already provided her assistance in making in Atomic Submarine while China helped in manufacturing F 17 Thunder.We need to expand our technical facilities bases.Same policy may b followed for manufacturing other conventional weapons. We have sufficient atomic weapons to handle India.So better go to increase naval weapons which we don't have enough.Even,we don't have a Naval Fleet.Inctease the Naval Force.

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Umair

Dec 29, 2015 05:06am

@Shoaib The F-16 is a larger aircraft. This means more fuel which means either greater range while carrying a certain weapons load or a greater weapons load for a given combat radius (range). F-16s provide the long range punch to the PAF. Avionics wise they bring nothing new to the table than what is installed on the JF-17.

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Ideal

Dec 29, 2015 05:09am

If JF-17 is at par with F16 why do we need F16?

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Robin Akbar

Dec 29, 2015 05:11am

F-16 is not 30 year old plane. It is up graded plane with sophisticated gadgets except the name is old.

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Robin Akbar

Dec 29, 2015 05:26am

Original product is always better than copies. Russian and Chinese planes are cheap and inferior copies. Go for original , real product

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Ahmad Zubair

Dec 29, 2015 06:32am

No need of getting crazy for F16s.Very soon they are going to become obsolete and just be the part of aircrafts graveyard. The Govt. of Pakistan should claim its money back from U.S.

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wasim

Dec 29, 2015 09:56am

where is the food for the living and food and basic necessities for the poor, what was the nuclear bomb for then... ?

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Holland

Dec 30, 2015 03:10am

There is no latest F 16, they are becoming obsolete; may be Pakistan should focus on buying from China latest jets at on tenth of F16 price and start building those in Pakistan. Or Pakistan should get an option to built F16 in Pakistan including the engine.

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Jamshed

Dec 30, 2015 05:02am

@Shoaib It is numbers that Pakistan cannot afford and the price tag with it. JF17 is between 22-28 million while F16 block 50/52 could be anywhere from $45.00 to $55.00 million with weapons suit.The most important thing is the goal in getting self sufficient and the "profit of knowledge" can never be replaced with hundreds of F16. Pakistan has learned the bitter lesson of embargo the hard way so this fighter even little inferior is a blessings and next step would be in complete independence in defense equipment.Last time Pakistan ordered latest block 52 18 fighters there was an option to buy 18 more so this is what PAF may on its mind.

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prayandprey

Dec 30, 2015 05:19am

@Umar: Almost 25% of budget spent "Tools of war", but not on education and health! Wow , just like the USA, which spends more on "Tools of War" than on education, Health and Welfare -- ALL PUT together!

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Jamshed

Dec 30, 2015 05:21am

@jess F16 just turned 40 so did F15. Both are proven platforms, the best of the best. 4000 F16 have been produced and 28 nations fly them. But the great thing about this fighter that it has gone massive design changes and improvement in both avionics and airframe and the weapons it can carry through many blocks from block 15 to latest block 60 and Lockheed Martin has F16V that will fill the gap with its 29000 lb engine thrust and latest weapon load.F16 is head and should above any Russian fighter and so is F15 with its many improvements and BTW it is stands out way above in ease of maintenance and sorties it can do.

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prayandprey

Dec 30, 2015 05:54am

@Haroon : Buy the Chinese JF-20's and 31's--if they sell them to you! But first, please build up your economy--the economy!

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prayandprey

Dec 30, 2015 06:01am

@Something Fishy : Comparatively speaking--Pakistanis and Indians always like to point at each other's short-comings to make themselves look better!

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abcd

Dec 30, 2015 07:42am

satisfaction over the production and quality level of the JF-17 Thunder and said it is at par with the F-16 in terms of performance and operations then why buy costly f16

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