Pakistan Aeronautical Complex

Aircraft Rebuild Factory (ARF), formerly known as F-6 Rebuild Factory (F-6RF) and P-721, is primarily dedicated to the overhaul and parts manufacture of Chinese aircraft in service with the Pakistan Air force (PAF). The factory is capable of overhauling and parts manufacturing for the Shenyang F-6 (now retired by the PAF), Nanchang A-5 (also retired by the PAF) and F-7 combat aircraft, as well as the Shenyang FT-5 and FT-6 jet trainer aircraft. ARF is also capable of manufacturing drop tanks and harnesses of aircraft.

The Mirage Rebuild Factory (MRF), formerly known as P-741, is dedicated to the overhaul of French origin military aircraft in service with the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), the Dassault Mirage III and Mirage V combat aircraft. Overhaul and manufacturing services were used by other countries with French Mirage aircraft in service. The Mirage III and Mirage 5 are under license and built at the PAC factory. This factory also grew to service and overhaul the Pratt & Whitney F100 turbofan engines belonging to the F-16 Fighting Falcon combat aircraft of the PAF. Due to lack of budget for replacing outdated aircraft, the MRF was devoted to domestically overhauling them, which according to claims, saved the country billions of dollars.[10]

Project ROSE (Retrofit Of Strike Element[11]), was a program initiated by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Pakistan Aeronautical Complex for the upgrades of the military avionics and electronics system of its aging Dassault Aviation– built Mirage fighter jets.[12] The program focused on modernization of military avionics and on-board computer system of Mirage IIIE and the Mirage V supplied by Pakistani Margella Electronics, French SAGEM and the Italian SELEX consortiums, as part of the program.[13]

Conceived in 1992 by the Pakistan Air Force, the program started in 1995 on main considerations of retiring the A–5 Fantan from active service.[11] The Pakistan Air Force which already was operating Dassalt Mirage-3s and Dassalt Mirage-5s began its procurement of second-hand Mirage fighters from Australia, Lebanon, Libya, and Spain at the price range within the MoD's fund.[14] Over 90% of the aircraft were retrofitted at the Aeronautical Complex in Kamra; few were upgraded in France.[14] From 1996–2000, several Mirage IIIE and Mirage 5 were bought from the other countries and were upgraded under this program at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex.[14] In this project the avionics of the aircraft were increased, in-flight refueling was added, due to this the range and combat radius of the fighter jet was increased, new grifo fire control radars having about 75 km range were introduced which gave the aircraft capability to fire BVR missiles if needed, the metallurgy of aircraft was overhauled and service life was increased, the capability to do take off and landing from motorway was also added, after the Rose-3 upgrading the locally manufactured standoff weapons like H-4 SOW bombs, H-2 SOW bombs, Takbir glide bomb , Stealth nuclear cruise missiles such as Ra'ad MK-1 and Ra'ad Mk-2 were added in the weapon package of the aircraft. Further considerations for upgrades were recommended but the program was terminated due to increasingly combined costs of the spare parts and the conditions of the second–hand airframes of the Mirage IIIE and Mirage V at the time of their procurement from various countries.[14]

It is currently expected for all of ROSE upgraded Mirage fighters jets to be remain in the combat service with Pakistan Air Force beyond 2020 in specialized Tactical Attack roles. They are expected to be replaced by JF–17 Thunder (Block-3, Block-4 and Block-5) or additional F-16s or 5th generation stealth fighter coming out Project Azm.

Two JF-17 multi-role fighters during a flypast performance in Islamabad on 23 March 2007, assembled by PAC earlier that month. Serial production of the fighter at AMF began on 30 June 2009.

An MFI-395 Super Mushshak, produced at AMF, on display at the IDEAS 2008 defence exhibition in Karachi, Pakistan.

Aircraft Manufacturing Factory (AMF), formerly known as P-751, is dedicated to heavy military aircraft manufacturing. The MFI-17 Mushshak basic trainer aircraft built under license for use by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and Pakistan Army aviation wing. This factory project managed the aircraft modification and development venture that resulted in the MFI-395 Super Mushshak basic trainer, based on the MFI-17 Mushshak. Development of the K-8 Karakorum (also known as Hongdu JL-8) intermediate/advanced jet trainer was done in co-operation with Hongdu Aviation Industry Group of China, with AMF manufacturing parts for the aircraft. The JF-17 multi-role combat aircraft (also known as FC-1), a joint project between China and Pakistan, is now being manufactured by AMF. The MFI-17, MFI-395, K-8 and JF-17 are now in service with the (PAF). AMF also designs and manufactures unmanned aerial vehicles for uses such as target practice.

Manufacture of sub-assemblies for the JF-17 light-weight multi-role fighter began on 22 January 2008, while serial production of the fighter began on 30 June 2009.

On 20 August 2009 the PAF announced that it would begin production of its own unmanned aerial vehicles in collaboration with Italian company Selex Galileo. Production of the UAV, named Falco, was to begin soon.[15] An earlier opportunity to manufacture a fighter aircraft was lost when the Pakistan Air Force abandoned Project Sabre II in 1987, a joint effort by Pakistan, China and Grumman Aerospace that would have seen AMF manufacturing a re-designed Chengdu F-7 variant.

Avionics production Factory (APF), formerly known as Kamra Avionics and Radar Factory (KARF) was initiated as Radar Maintenance Centre (RMC) in 1983 to overhaul and rebuild ground-based radar systems. In 1989, RMC was expanded to become Kamra Radar & Avionics Factory (KARF). APF has the facilities to assemble and overhaul airborne as well as ground-based radar systems, electronics and avionics. the ISO 9002 certified facility among PAC, the factory was involved in upgrading the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Chengdu F-7P interceptor fleet by replacing the original Italian built FIAR Grifo-7 radar with the more capable FIAR Grifo-7 mk-II radar, which was assembled under licence by APF. More recently, radar production involved the license assembly of the latest upgrade variant of the FIAR Grifo-7, the Grifo-7MG radar, which arms the Chengdu F-7PG combat aircraft of the PAF. In mid-2009 it was reported that APF personnel had completed training on printed circuit board assembly machines supplied by US company APS Novastar, which would be used to make circuit boards for combat aircraft avionics.[16]

As PAC's capabilities become competitive in the region, commercial ventures from national and international companies are also being undertaken.

On 7 July 2017 the Pakistan Air Force announced the development of a fifth-generation fighter jet technology's, a stealth medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (MALE UAV) and munitions and a smart longer range surface to air missile systems SAM missile systems under the banner of Project Azm (resolve or determination). Pakistani public and private sectors are jointly working on the development of Next generation stealth fighter aircraft (PAC PF-X) whose first flight is expected in 2030, moreover work has also begun for the development of stealth MALE-UCAV ZF-1 Viper. The information about this Multirole Stealth drone was first revealed at International Defence Exhibition and Seminar held at Karachi, this UAV will have both air-to-air and air-to-surface capabilities, it will have a maximum takeoff weigh of 16000 kg and a flight ceiling of 9150m and its speed will be Mach 0.8. Certain rumours were being spread that China might be helping Pakistan in this project, but Pakistan's Air Marshal Shahid Latif (retired), who played a key role in the development of PAC JF-17 Thunder, nullified the rumours by saying that although they still have an option to go for joint collaboration with China, but PAF had gained as much experience and knowledge after the successful development of PAC JF-17 Thunder that PAC engineers are experienced enough to begin development of a next generation fighter on their own.[17][18][19][20][21] Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman stated that the design phase for the MALE UAV was in its final stages.[17][21] Pakistan Air Force showcased the conceptual design of a future stealth aircraft on the tail of the PAF C-130 at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) 2019. However, there's no official statement regarding this by PAF.[22]

As per the yearbook of the Pakistan Ministry of Defence Production (MoDP) for the year 2017-2018, the Aviation Research, Innovation and Development (AvRID) Secretariat has finalized the first of the four conceptual design stage cycles for the development of the Pakistan Air Force’s Fifth-Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) program.[22]

• JF-17 Thunder - produced with Chengdu Aerospace Corporation of China[23]
• Chengdu F-7P - improved version of Chengdu J-7 of China
• K-8 Karakorum - co-production with Hongdu Aviation Industry Group of China
• Super Mushshak - upgraded variant of MFI-17 Mushshak
  • Super Mushshak LCA - light combat variant of Super Mushshak
• MFI-17 Mushshak - upgraded variant of PAC MFI-15 Safari
• PAC MFI-15 Safari - licensed copy of Saab Safari of Sweden.

• Ababeel Aerial Drone – A small arms target designed for target practice use by operators of small arms, machine guns. Also used to train operators for the larger and faster Baaz Aerial Drone. Can be very effective for recce missions.[24]
• Baaz Aerial Drone – A recoverable aerial target designed for use with air defence guns and surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems. It has a very high rate of accuracy[25]
• Galileo Falco – A surveillance UAV, production began in August 2009 under license of Selex ES of Italy.[26][27]

• PAC-PAD 1[28]
• PAC-PAD Takhti 7[28]
• The PAC e-book 1[29]
• The PAC n-book 1[30]