Red Flag invite likely for Pakistan Air Force next year – to engage USAF in exercises at home

The US Defence Department is likely to issue an invitation to the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) to participate in the Red Flag aerial combat training exercise  next year. According to leading industry publication, the Aerospace Daily, it was informed by an US Air Force spokesman that there is ''a possibility that the Pakistani Air Force will participate in a Red Flag in 2009.''

The exercises are held thrice annually at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, USA.

The report also said that Group Capt. Ahmer Shehzad, air attaché at the Pakistani embassy, confirmed that the Pakistani Air Force (PAF) had been invited to Red Flag, but stressed that officials in Islamabad will decide whether to accept the invitation.

The reports emerge just as India, Pakistan's neighbour, completed a successful debut at the Red Flag exercises this summer.

Reports suggest that first indications of Pakistan's likely participation at the exercise came at a hearing before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee earlier this week in which State and Defence Department staffers argued in favour of re-programming more than $250 million in military assistance funding to pay for upgrades to Pakistan's ageing fleet of F-16A/Bs.

At the hearings, Bush administration officials insisted that the US-funded upgrades to Pakistan's 1980s F-16s will be used to counter al Qaeda terrorism and will not act as a force multiplier against Indian defences.

US Air Force Maj Gen Burton M Field, vice director of strategic plans and policy on the Pentagon's Joint Staff, told committee members the upgrades will allow the PAF to conduct close air support and precision strikes at night, something it is unable to do now.

Maj Gen Field also said Pakistan's participation in Red Flag would be preceded by ''a series of progressive building block approaches over in their own country, getting them ready for that large scale programme.''