Aug
11
A Hero’s Enduring Legacy: Air Marshal Inam H. Khan and Pakistan’s Air Power
Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Every nation needs heroes—visionaries who inspire, guide, and define us through their actions and principles. These heroes may be thought leaders, strategists, philosophers, artists, or military commanders who serve with distinction. Today marks the seventh anniversary of my father’s passing, Air Marshal Inam H. Khan, and I want to reflect on how his legacy remains profoundly relevant to current events.
Jul
30
by Imran H. Khan & Faiz M. Khan
Early Life and Education
Air Marshal Inam ul-Haque Khan was born on 25 May 1927 in Patiala, India. He was educated at the Aligarh Muslim University where he attained his BSc and MSc. Following the partition of India in 1947, he emigrated to Pakistan and witnessed an advertisement for the Pakistan Air Force, which would change the trajectory of his life forever.
In 1948, he joined the Pakistan Air Force after seeing an advertisement and was directed to attend the RPAF College at Risalpur. He was commissioned in the 5th GD(P) Course in 1949, graduating as a fighter pilot in December 1949. Remarkably, he achieved the unique distinction of winning the coveted Sword of Honor, Best Pilot Trophy, and Ground Subjects Trophy – securing all three trophies and establishing himself as an exceptional aviator from the very beginning of his career.
Read moreJul
3
Core Competence: J-79, Kelly Johnson and PAF
Filed Under India, PAF, Peace, Technology, United States | 8 Comments
by Imran H. Khan
Core technologies and capabilities that drive the economies take a long time, large amounts of money and even bigger patience to bear fruit. But once they mature, the rewards are well worth the effort. Malcolm Gladwell in his book “Outliers” makes a similar case for outstanding achievers, that it is more of their earlier start than their brains that make them excel. It is sustained practice of ones art or profession that over the period of time blossoms into an unsurpassed ability. Developing countries typically try to shy away from making investments in longer gestation technologies and therefore commit themselves to the path of perpetually playing catchup with developed countries. This is a story of a jet engine that propelled Air Forces possessing it into an unrivaled position. Read more
Mar
24
Mirages at War
Filed Under PAF, Pakistan, Technology | 1 Comment
by Air Cdre M Kaiser Tufail(Retd)
“Enemy pilots should see it, but never catch up with it.”
[MARCEL DASSAULT]
At the outbreak of the 1971 Indo-Pak War, Mirage IIIEs were the newest and most advanced combat aircraft in the PAF inventory. Besides performing a wider variety of missions, they could generate a higher daily sortie rate compared to the aging F-86s, F-104s and B-57s. They could navigate accurately to relatively deeper targets and, after the attack, egress at high speed. They could carry out straight line, hit-and-run intercepts against raiders as adeptly as the F-104s, though the radar performance of both fighters was suspect against low-flying targets in ground clutter. Coupled with marginal performance of the five-odd low level AR-1 air defence radars which were interspersed with yawning gaps, PAF’s intercept capability was of consequence during day only; at night-time, it was a chance in a million, as it were. Read more
Mar
1
F-6s at War
Filed Under China, PAF, Pakistan, Technology, US Policy | 7 Comments
by Air Cdre M Kaiser Tufail (Retd) 
The US embargo on military sales to Pakistan at the outbreak of 1965 Indo-Pak War was received with dismay and disbelief by the PAF, whose combat and training aircraft were totally of US origin. Already starting to get outclassed by more modern aircraft, the F-86Fs, F-104s and B-57s were now plagued by spares support problems that rendered them virtually worthless in the PAF. The C-in-C of the PAF, Air Marshal Nur Khan who had cannily led the force during the war, sensed the criticality of the situation and started an immediate search for suitable aircraft from new sources. Read more