Air Force Strategic Command (Pakistan)
Encyclopedia
The Pakistan Air Force
Pakistan Air Force
The Pakistan Air Force is the leading air arm of the Pakistan Armed Forces and is primarily tasked with the aerial defence of Pakistan with a secondary role of providing air support to the Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Navy. The PAF also has a tertiary role of providing strategic air transport...

 Strategic Forces Command
, known as AF Strategic Command, is one of the three unified command of the Pakistan Strategic Forces Command. It is one of the major command of Pakistan Air Force and is tasked with space operations (such as military satellites), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV's), information operations (such as information warfare), missile defense, national command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR), strategic strike and strategic deterrence (Pakistan's nuclear arsenal), and combating weapons of mass destruction. The command is headquarter in Islamabad and directly reports to Chief of Air Staff, President, and the Prime minister of Pakistan.

The unified military combat command structure is intended to give the civilian leadership a unified resource for greater understanding of specific threats to Pakistan's national and strategic assets and the means to respond to those threats as quickly as possible.

History

The Operation Chengiz Khan
Operation Chengiz Khan
Operation Chengiz Khan was the code name assigned to the pre-emptive strikes carried out by the Pakistani Air Force on the forward airbases and radar installations of the Indian Air Force on the evening of 3 December 1971, and marked the formal initiation of hostilities of the Indo-Pakistani war...

, commenced on December 3, 1971, against Indian Air Force resulted in brutal failure. This operation started the formal start of Indo-Pakistani war of 1971 and led a bitter defeat of Pakistan Air Force. In context of this war, the Combat Commanders School (CCS), was established under Colonel Cecil Chaudhry
Cecil Chaudhry
Group Captain Cecil Chaudhry is a Pakistani Christian, educationalist, human rights activist and veteran fighter pilot. As a Flight Lieutenant, he fought in the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965 and later, as a Squadron Leader, in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971...

 to train the best fighter pilots in the air force for carrying out the strategic bombing operations. However, the need for a strategic command was felt in depth in 1980s.

In 1981, Israeli Air Force
Israeli Air Force
The Israeli Air Force is the air force of the State of Israel and the aerial arm of the Israel Defense Forces. It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence...

 successfully sabotage the Iraqi nuclear program after commencing a successful surprise air strike on Iraqi nuclear installations at Osirak, under the codename Operation Opera
Operation Opera
Operation Babylon was a surprise Israeli air strike carried out on June 7, 1981, that destroyed a nuclear reactor under construction 17 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, Iraq....

. The Operation Opera
Operation Opera
Operation Babylon was a surprise Israeli air strike carried out on June 7, 1981, that destroyed a nuclear reactor under construction 17 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, Iraq....

played a psychological role in Pakistan as it was a success operation commenced by Israeli Air Force
Israeli Air Force
The Israeli Air Force is the air force of the State of Israel and the aerial arm of the Israel Defense Forces. It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence...

. The Air Intelligence
Air Intelligence of Pakistan
The Directorate for the Air Intelligence of Pakistan, codename AI, is an air force staff corps and chief intelligence directorate of the Pakistan Air Force . The AI is responsible for the formulation of the aerial intelligence picture, and participates in forging the overall intelligence view as...

 picked reports about suspected activities near Indo-Pakistan border. Therefore, PAF was put on high alert and in 1983, the PAF made first contact with suspect IAF F-16s. The PAF jets intercepted the suspected F-16s and confirmed their Israeli identity. The PAF jets took aggressive measures and their tactics surprised the IAF F-16s. Panicked and surprise, the mission was cancelled and IAF F-16s were pulled off immediately.

After this incident, the Chief of Air Staff
Chief of Air Staff (Pakistan)
The Chief of the Air Staff of the Pakistan Air Force, abbreviated as CAS, is typically the highest ranking 4-star rank officer in the Pakistan Air Force, unless a four-star officer is appointed as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. The CAS is a senior and permanent member of the...

 General Anwar Shamim decided to formed a unified command to protect the nuclear deterrence from outside forces. The 1980s was a decade of modernizing of Air Force and PAF inducted and introduced advanced jets in its weaponry. Since 1990s, the PAF jets are believed to have to have practiced "toss-bombing
Toss bombing
Toss bombing is a method of bombing where the attacking aircraft pulls upwards when releasing its bomb load, giving the bomb additional time of flight by starting its ballistic path with an upward vector.The purpose of toss bombing is to compensate for the gravity drop of the...

"— a method developed by United States Air Force to deliver nuclear weapons from fighter jets.

The command was highly active in 1998 when country, under the leadership of Prime minister Navaz Sharif, decided to carried out the nuclear test operations at Chagai Hills
Chagai Hills
The Chagai Hills is a range of granite hills in the Chagai District in Pakistan's Balochistan province.-Location:The Chagai Hills lie in a desert area in the northernmost part of Chagai District north of Pakistan's Ras Koh Hills and south of Afghanistan's Helmand and Nimruz provinces.- Topography...

. The command flew the nuclear devices from Rawalpindi to Chagai and also carried scientists to the nuclear test sites. The Air Force Strategic Command is one of the most sensitive Commands of Pakistan Air Force. Director General Air Force Strategic Command is also a member of Development Committee of Nuclear Command Authority and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Commmitte.

The two units, Squadron No. 16 Black Panthers
No. 16 Squadron (Pakistan Air Force)
No. 16 Squadron, named the Black Panthers, is a Pakistan Air Force fighter squadron.-History:The squadron was established in 1957, equipped with the F-86F Sabre, commanded by Squadron Leader Imam-ul-Haq Khan and assigned the role of Tactical Attack...

 and the No. 26 Squadron Black Spiders
No. 26 Squadron (Pakistan Air Force)
No. 26 Squadron, named the Black Spiders, is a Pakistan Air Force fighter squadron.-History:The squadron was established at PAF Base Masroor on 30 August 1967, equipped with the F-86 Sabre, commanded by Wing Commander Rehmat Khan and assigned the role of operational training of pilots on the F-86....

, were the first units to be inducted in this command and reportedly stationed at Masroor Air Force Base in early 1998. By late 1999 they had reportedly been re-deployed to Peshawar Air Force Base.

On 01 April 2009 the government promoted air vice marshal Farhat Hussain Khan to the rank of air marshal. Air Marshal Farhat Hussain Khan had commanded a fighters' squadron, a fighters' wing and an operational base. In Dec 2010, Air Vice Marshal Sohail Ahmed, former Base Commander Pakistan Air Force Base, Masroor was made its Commander.

Influence to other Inter-Services

The command influenced Pakistan Army and Pakistan Navy to established their own Strategic commands to battle their genre of weapons. In 1999, Pakistan Army established Army Strategic Forces Command
Army Strategic Forces Command (Pakistan)
The Pakistan Army Strategic Forces Command, known as Army SF Command, is major Combatant Command of Pakistan Armed Forces. Together with Pakistan Air Force's Air Force Strategic Command and the Naval Strategic Command , they formed the Pakistan Strategic Forces Commands directly reported to Joint...

 to have control over its land-based weapons. It was followed by Navy who established its Naval Strategic Forces Command
Naval Strategic Forces Command (Pakistan)
The Pakistan Naval Strategic Forces Command , known as PNSFC, is a one of the three major unified command of the Pakistan Armed Forces responsible for the defence and protection of naval and naval-nuclear assets in the country...

in 2004 to battle the naval-based weapons of mass destruction.
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