Islamabad, Aug 14: Pakistan was planning to buy older versions of F-16 fighter planes from Belgium as United States rejected Islamabad's request for the aircraft, Pakistan's Air Force chief has said. "Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has approached Belgium to purchase the older versions of F-16s," PAF chief, Air Chief Marshal Kaleem Saadat, said in Lahore yesterday. However, the acquisition from Belgium was subjected to US' approval, he added. US President George Bush, during the recent summit with President Pervez Musharraf at Camp David, had turned down the latter's request for the aircraft.

Meanwhile, PAF and China were jointly developing a new fighter jet 'joint fighter 17 thunder', which would be ready for trials this month, he said.

"Any defence equipment coming from the west is linked to US approval, therefore, we are considering other options and Chinese jet fighter could be an appropriate option."


He said that by installing more sophisticated 'aides' on the platform of the 'thunder', PAF would have appropriate replacement of its existing, aging fleet of F-16s.


Claiming that "timely alert by PAF warded off" Indian Air Force (IAF) from launching attacks thrice on the Pakistan occupied Kashmir during the last year's military stand-off, Sadaat said the PAF continued to put up strong show despite numerical superiority by the IAF.


He said PAF had a half a billion dollar budget to maintain its 500 odd fleet compared to four billion dollar budget of IAF, which had a strength of 1500 fighter planes. Bureau Report