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F-16 rolling out ceremony held in Dallas

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KARACHI: The first Block-52 F-16D aircraft of the Pakistan Air force rolled out on Tuesday at a ceremony in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, USA. Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman attended the ceremony as the chief guest.

Pakistan had signed a contract with the US government in September 2006 for supply of 18 Block-52 F-16 C/D aircraft from M/s LM Aero. These state-of-the-art F-16s will bolster PAFís fleet of high tech combat aircraft and will enable it to undertake wide variety of missions across the entire spectrum of operations.

After the completion of testing and integration of the new system, the first batch of†F-16 C/D aircraft is scheduled to arrive in Pakistan in June 2010, and the delivery of all 18 F-16s is planned to complete by December 2010.

Speaking on the occasion, Rao Qamar Suleman said that this programme had seen many ups and downs since signing of the contract. The roll-out of the first aircraft shows that the programme is on track. Besides the air chief, the ceremony was also attended by Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States Hussain Haqqani and others.

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