Meet the Falcon

Given that the US simultaneously cleared a long-stalled deal to add upto 70 to Pakistan’s existing fleet of about 30 F-16 jets, the Defence Ministry and the air force initially sulked. The MEA was more keen, catching on fairly early to the larger political import of the package Washington had offered New Delhi, and which some have likened to Nixon’s reaching out to China.

So how different is this F-16 from its 1980s era cousin? Pakistan currently operates 30 F-16s from Block 15, a 1981 variant with improved air-to-ground and beyond-visual-range battle capabilities. Its new F-16s will be from the latest Block 50/52C — the same as those on offer to India, with one of the world’s most advanced mission computers, more payload for armaments and cutting edge avionics.

THE F-16 fighter burst onto the world’s military stage at a time when the US had been pounded out of Vietnam after a bungled and expensive war. The US Air Force F-4 Phantom fighters, darlings of their day, proved their worth by being shot out of the sky by renegade North Vietnamese MiG-21 pilots.

The colossal loss compelled Washington to authorise development of aircraft that would be smaller, faster and more lethal. America’s military-industrial complex, still supping on postwar profits, rose to the occasion, supplying the Pentagon with two of its most durable and capable fighters — the F-15 Eagle and the F-14 Tomcat.

But through their development, a curious aircraft cartel took shape. It lobbied hard enough to convince the Pentagon that the USAF also needed a cheaper, more manoeuverable fighter.

Its beloved F-15 and F-14 projects thus threatened, the USAF reluctantly allowed defence firm General Dynamics to display its prototype of the first YF-16, in direct competition with a Northrop YF-17. Even more uncomfortably, the USAF discovered that the YF-16 had capabilities that far surpassed the F-15 Eagle.

IN 1979, the first F-16 was delivered to the Hill Air Force Base in Utah. The plane went on to perform in both Gulf Wars, the Bosnian conflict, Libya and Latin America. Israel, another extensive operator of the F-16, still uses it to decimate ‘‘terrorist infrastructure’’ on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In the early 1980s, India responded to Pakistan’s new American F-16s by buying 40 French Mirage 2000s. Both countries continue to lament Washington’s proposed sale of F-16s to the other. But as senior air force officers say, when the enemy has nuclear weapons and missiles, conventional war instruments like the F-16 lose their ability to frighten.

Cynicism, we must warn you, is the oldest child of war.