Posted on 06/06/2011 8:24:39 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
MUST READ: Tell-all interview with Pakistan Viper pilot
By Stephen Trimble
A special feature posted on the PAF Falcons web site provides a fascinating transcript of a one-on-one interview with an anonymous, although apparently very senior, Pakistani Air Force F-16 pilot. It reminds me of YouTube Terry's infamous indiscretions.
The Pakistani pilot manages to embarrass the pride of the Royal Air Force, candidly describe Israeli air-to-air prowess and explain how the US keeps the F-16 Block 52's secrets away from the Pakistanis and -- by extension -- the Chinese.
On the RAF Typhoon:
On one occasion - in one of the international Anatolian Eagles - PAF pilots were pitted against RAF Typhoons, a formidable aircraft. There were three set-ups and in all three, we shot down the Typhoons. The RAF pilots were shocked.
Q: Any particular reason for your success?
A: NATO pilots are not that proficient in close-in air-to-air combat. They are trained for BVR engagements and their tactics are based on BVR engagements. These were close-in air combat exercises and we had the upper hand because close-in air combat is drilled into every PAF pilot and this is something we are very good at.
On the Israelis:
Q: What are the Isrealis afraid of?
A: What they fear most is that we might learn about their tactics, especially BVR countermeasure tactics, which they have mastered.
Q: I heard a rumour that the TuAF once gave PAF pilots the opportunity to fly with and against the Israelis in A. TuAF F-16s pretending to be Turkish pilots - even letting them sit in the Turkish-Israeli ACMI de-briefs? No comments.
On US concerns about the Chinese:
To recall an interesting little story: soon after the first F-16s were delivered to Pakistan in the mid-80s, the PLAAF Chief visited Sargodha. The Americans were there as well. As a gesture of courtesy, the PAF showed the PLAAF Chief one of the F-16s and let him sit in the cockpit. Some US technicians were there looking on. As soon as the PLAAF Chief sat in the F-16 cockpit, the first thing he did was to start measuring the HUD with his fingers, you know, when you extend your little finger and thumb to measure something? This worried the Americans.
On US export control practices:
They have ways of keeping an eye on the Block 52s without being personally present. The main concern is the transfer of cutting-edge technology - the avionics and radar, the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) the Sniper pod. They have put digital seals all the sensitive technologies, which can only be opened via a code, which only they know. If there is a malfunction or these parts need to be serviced, they will be taken out of the Block 52s and shipped back to the US for repairs/servicing. If we try to pry open these systems without the codes, inbuilt alarms will be relayed to the Americans, which will be a breach of the contract.
Q: Will the Americans be able to track the locations of the Block 52s through some sort of tracking devices hidden inside the aircraft?
A: If there are tracking devices then they will be inside the sealed systems, like the avionics suites or the sniper pods because we will not have the ability to look inside. If their Predator and Reaper drones are transmitting their GPS locations via satellite so can a Block 52 F-16.
Even though Turkey produces the F-16, there are some components that are manufactured in the US and only come to Turkey for the final assembly. In one incident, a Turkish Block 50 crashed and the pilot was killed. They salvaged the wreckage and laid it out in hanger and started putting together the pieces to find out the cause. They found a piece of sealed equipment which had cracked open and inside they found some device that looked like a bug. Upon inquiry, it turned out to be a tracking device.
Is there a switch to turn off the flight control conputer via sat-link if needed? /sort of sarcasm
Could be...
FMS security deletion ensure no sensitive/protected data/components are released. Period.
Measuring a HUD using your fingers caused concerns? BWAHAHAHAH. . .really, come on.
Just another example of disinformation by another third-world country trying to play first world.
Well considering that the large NRO surveillance satellites could easily receive a signal from a microwatt level source built into a single microchip I’d say it’s very likely that there are control chips built into a lot of military gear. The chips could get data back from the NRO birds since those sats can transmit as well as listen.
It’s just too juicy a capability not to have been utilized.
Just imagine the possibilities. Also remember that our intelligence agencies have access to their very own custom chip fabs...and they could make work-alike copies of any chip and add new functions to them.
I have often wondered if commercial chips might contain the equivalent of the infamous Motorola “HCF” instruction - which was a design bug - which would halt the processor and put the bus into an electrically illegal state causing it to get hot or damaged. It could be embedded by a magic sequence of instructions that would be totally unlikely to be used in the real world...and impossible to detect by reverse-engineering a chip with tens of millions (or even a significant fraction of a billion) transistors.
As for PAF pilot posting as a TuAF pilot and exercising with Israelis, you think the Israeli intelligence with their background check wont come to know?
These sort of things are really hard to verify and even if proved, it really depends on what scenarios and configurations these exercises happened in. An F-16 Block 15 with an air defense configuration can down most aircraft carrying heavier loads.
Unless that load happens to be BVR weaponry. I suppose any agile modern aircraft in air defense configuration would win a close visual range encounter with most aircraft carrying heavier (non-BVR) loads.
Normally international exercises are set up so that each side wins something. The rules of engagement are the easiest thing to manipulate. In some cases, pilots are instructed to put a 3 or more second delay in their reaction, so the host nation will have a chance. 3 seconds is a long time.
Keep in mind who gets to be fighter pilots. These guys are their countries’ best young men: very smart, very hard workers, very capable, and very proud of what they do. What comes out in an interview has to reflect that.
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