Air Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Babar Sidhu on Friday took over the command of Pakistan Air Force as the 23rd Chief of the Air Staff, in a graceful Change of Command ceremony held here at Air Headquarters. During the ceremony, a smartly turned out contingent of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) presented the Guard of Honour and a four-ship formation of JF-17 Thunder aircraft presented a farewell fly past to the outgoing Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan. While addressing the occasion, the outgoing Air Chief said “Certainly, I cannot think of a greater honour than leading one of the finest air forces of the world.” Recalling the PAF’s achievement in Operation Swift Retort, he said, that PAF once again lived up to the Nation’s expectations and proved to be the guardians of our free blue skies through a timely and well-calibrated response, which kept the enemy at bay. He further said that PAF had made great strides on its journey to excellence and continued transformation for a Next Generation Air Force-2047. Now, the Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan has completed his term of service and added a new topic of glory and success in the history of Pakistan Air Force. He handed over the command of a well-disciplined, well equipped and a victorious Air Force to the new Air Chief, Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Babar Sidhu. With successful transition of PAF’s Command, a new era has begun with new challenges and opportunities. The outgoing Air Chief has clearly defined the manifesto of Pakistan Air Force in his short address and it is a two-point agenda. The first item is to live up to the Nation’s expectation and second is to achieve excellence in itself. The process of transformation remains continue in all fields of life with the passage of time and if an organization or individual could not embrace the contemporary changes and new inventions into itself, it got behind in its race. A dynamic, evolving and state of the art Pakistan Air Force needs continuous endeavors through comprehensive training, bilateral and multi-lateral joint exercise, induction of latest aircrafts and air defense platforms and a flexible approach to emerging threats. In the backdrop of successful Operation Swift Retort, the challenge of maintaining the upper edge over its adversary become more indispensable for PAF. If we look at the history, one can clearly observe the difference of our doctrine during the war of 1965 and 1971. Over the span of 6 years, our enemy was able to revert its defeat into its victory.
The experience of history emphasized the importance of increased efforts to maintain air supremacy in the region. The recent Indian strategy of so-called surgical strikes based on Political and propaganda motives had revive the need of more potent presence of our fighter arm in close proximity of Pak-India border and near LoC. Such small size air Defence picket would be able to efficiently deter Indian air threat in future post Pulwama scenario.
Pakistan Air Force fighter fleet is comprising of significant numbers of fourth generation fighter jets, which are fulfilling the country’s need at time, but while keeping in view the emerging challenges, PAF must initiative efforts to acquire 5th generation fight aircraft to compete its adversary in coming days. The nation hopes that PAF new leadership is fully aware of the challenges and capable of rising PAF to new heights of excels in the all domains of air warfare in future.
