Qamar Says F-16s to Strengthen Pak-US Ties

KARACHI: Air Chief Marshall Rao Qamar Suleman has said the provision of F-16s D aircraft will make US-Pakistan ties rather stronger.

This he said while addressing the rolling out ceremony of F-16s aircraft to Pakistan here in Dallas city of US’s state of Texas on Tuesday.

According to sources, the First Block-52 F-16D aircraft of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) rolled out on Tuesday at a ceremony held at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics (LM Aero) facility at Dallas – Fort Worth, Texas USA.

An ISPR (PAF) press release issued here on Tuesday evening said that the Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman, Chief of the Air Staff, Pakistan Air Force, attended the ceremony as the chief guest.

It said that Pakistan had signed a contract with US Government in September 2006 for supply of 18 Block-52 F-16 C/D aircraft from M/s LM Aero.

These state-of-the-art F-16s will bolster PAF’s fleet of high tech combat aircraft and will enable it to undertake wide variety of missions across the entire spectrum of operations.

After completion of testing and integration of the new system, the first batch of F-16 C/D aircraft is scheduled to arrive in Pakistan in June 2010, and the delivery of all 18 F-16s is planned to complete by December 2010.

Speaking on the occasion, ACM Rao Qamar Suleman said that this programme has seen many ups and downs since signing of the contract. The rollout of the first aircraft shows that the programme is on track.

Besides CAS PAF, the ceremony was also attended by Ms Kay Granger (Member US House of Representatives), Gen Norton Schwartz (Chief of Staff USAF), General David H Petraeus, Commander CENTCOM, Hussain Haqqani (Ambassador of Pakistan to the US), Ralph Heath (President LM Aero), John Larson (VP F-16/F-2/T-50 Programmes) and other distinguished guests from the US Government, LM Aero and the Government of Pakistan.