In 2010 the PAF have approximately 617, 000 personnel on active duty, 513, 000 in reserve and 304, 000 in its paramilitary forces giving a total of almost 1, 451, 000 personnel.

The cadre staff of 1AFDS consisted of Permanent Air Force ( PAF ) GRDEFOs and ADG NCOs ; while the Ready Reserve Scheme was abolished in 1996, the RAAF implemented the Ground Defence Reserve Group based upon a similar concept, although with the full-time service commitment reduced to 9 months.

During this conflict the PAF sent personnel to Egypt, Jordan and Syria to support the Arabs in their battle against the Israelis.

PAF personnel were stationed at the Tejgaon Airport.

Some plain cloths Commandos were in the city The Pakistani Navy ( under Commodore Mumtaz ) had 300 troops and the PAF had an unknown number of personnel at the naval base and at the airport respectively.

Finally the PAF bombed the station, and the transmitters were removed to another location by Bengali personnel.

At the end of the war, India had lost 110 aircraft with 19 damaged, not including those destroyed on the ground at night, against a loss of 16 PAF planes.

PAF pilots managed to shoot down ten Israeli aircraft, including Mirages, Mystères and Vautours, without losses on their own side.

At the end of the war, the Indian Air Force claimed that it had shot down 94 PAF aircraft ( including 54 F-86 Sabres ) compared to 44 to 130 the PAF flying 2, 914 combat sorties while the IAF flew 7, 346 combat sorties during the conflict.

The rank of group captain is also used in a number of the air forces in the Commonwealth, including the Bangladesh Air Force, Ghana Air Force, Indian Air Force ( IAF ), Nigerian Air Force, Pakistan Air Force ( PAF ), Royal Australian Air Force ( RAAF ), Royal New Zealand Air Force ( RNZAF ) and the Sri Lankan Air Force.

The PAF get the first three F-16 Block 52 + on 3 July 2010 and first batch of AMRAAMs on 26 July 2010.

Wary of India's growing involvement in the Bengali rebellion, the Pakistan Air Force ( PAF ) launched a preemptive strike on 10 Indian air bases at Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot, Amritsar, Agra, Adampur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Uttarlai and Sirsa at 1745 hours on 3 December.

ACM Shamim told General Zia that, " Indian aircraft could reach the area in 3 minutes whereas the PAF would take 8 minutes, allowing the Indians to attack the facility and return before the PAF could defend it ".

The battle raged from 7 am to 2 PM, and when the attack stalled around midday, PAF jets bombed the area, and another 3 hours were needed before the base was secured.

At around 3: 00 p. m. three F-86 Sabres of the PAF flew in to provide close air support and hit the Indian positions using machine guns and rocket fire.

The PAF pilots operated with Egyptian, Jordanese and Iraqi combat aircraft.

During this war 16 PAF pilots volunteered to leave for the Middle East in order to support Egypt and Syria but by the time they arrived Egypt had already agreed on a cease-fire.

Syria remained in a state of war against Israel so the PAF pilots became instructors there and formed the A-flight of 67 Squadron at Dumayr AB.

One of the PAF pilots, Flt.

The civilian pilots from PIA volunteered to serve in the surveillance missions with the PAF after the PAF launched the seaborne operation after the Indian naval attack but due to miscommunication and panic attack, the civilians abroad on Fokker Friendship raised a false alarmed which reported a Pakistan Navy frigate, PNS Zulfikar as a missile boat by Indian Navy.

The Indian Navy observes furthered noted that the " PAF pilots failed to recognize the difference between a large PNS Zulfikar frigate and small Osa missile boat .".

Interestingly one of the captured PAF pilots, Parvez Mehdi Qureshi later on became the Chief of Air Staff of the Pakistan Air Force.

Girobank's GIR 0AA, the last domestic postcode with a wholly alphabetical outward code, no longer exists in the Royal Mail's PAF system, but remains in active use by the bank's owners, currently Santander UK.

The latest export variant is the K-8P version, which currently is operated by the PAF.

The others are various variants of the Mirage-III and Mirage-V, of which around 156 are currently operated by the PAF.

He's currently using an RG Premium 6 strings with Norton, True Velvet and PAF 36th Anniversary pickups, an RG Premium 7 strings with D Activators, an RGD 7 strings with D Activators and an ARZ800 drop tuned with EMG's.

The PAF also operates some 63 F-16 fighters, the first 32 of which were delivered in the 1980s and believed by some to have been modified for nuclear weapons delivery.

These new aircraft gave a much-needed boost to the morale and combat capability of the Pakistan Air Force ; 93 Hawker Fury and roughly 50-70 Bristol Freighter aircraft were inducted into the PAF by 1950.

According to Indian sources most aircraft losses of IAF were on ground while PAF lost most in aerial combat.

At the start of the war, the PAF inventory contained around 270 combat aircraft while the IAF had over 1, 200-outnumbering the PAF 4: 1 in West Pakistan and 10: 1 in East Pakistan.

Desperate for a new high-tech combat aircraft, between late 1990 and 1993 the PAF evaluated the European Panavia Tornado MRCA ( multi-role combat aircraft ) and rejected it.

The Pakistan Air Force ( PAF ) did not see active combat during the low-intensity Kargil Conflict between India and Pakistan during the summer of 1999 but remained on high air defence alert ( ADA ) and performed F-16 and F-7MP combat air patrols ( CAPs ) near the eastern border with India.

Two PAF F-86F Sabres from No. 15 Squadron on Air Defence Alert ( ADA ) were scrambled from Sargodha Air Base to intercept the IAF aircraft.

Many publications have credited the PAF's successes to U. S. equipment, claiming it to be superior to the aircraft operated by the IAF and giving the PAF a " qualitative advantage ".

Even though the IAF flew a larger offensive air campaign by devoting 40 % of its air effort to offensive air support alone, according to Indian sources the majority of its losses came from aircraft destroyed on the ground through PAF air strikes.

The PAF without doubt, had achieved far more in terms of enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground but the IAF had achieved much more in the close support role.

It was decided the most suitable aircraft would be the F-16 Fighting Falcon, which the United States eventually agreed to supply after the PAF refused to purchase the F-5E and F-5G.

In 1992 the PAF again looked at the Mirage 2000, reviving a proposal from the early 1980s to procure around 20-40 aircraft, but again a sale did not occur because France did not want to sell a fully capable version due to political reasons.

An initial investigation report revealed that the Pakistan Air Force ( PAF ) reported the movement of some half-a-dozen planes near the Jalalabad border at 11 pm before the US helicopters entered Abbottabad to kill Osama bin Laden .“ One aircraft was identified as a US AWACS and the remaining five were recognised as F-18 jets of the US.

The PAF aircraft continued their presence in Abbottabad area till early morning and later returned to their air bases.

In 2010, the number of K-8 aircraft in PAF were estimated to be around 40.