*KAMRA: The sprawling complex at Kamra, west of Islamabad, reverbates atthe thundering take-off of a Mirage Rose-1, the latest ageing fighter jetto have been gutted and reassembled by the Pakistani Air Force.*

Fifty years after Pakistan bought its first Mirages, many planes in thevenerable fleet are still being patched up, overhauled and upgraded for usein combat, years after conventional wisdom dictates they should be grounded.

That includes one of the first two planes originally purchased fromFrance´s Dassault in 1967, which was in a hangar at Kamra after its recordfifth overhaul when AFP visited recently.

The techniques they have developed are reminiscent of — but far morehigh-tech and lethal than — the improvised methods used to keep classicAmerican cars running on the streets of Havana.

“We have achieved such a capability that our experts can integrate anylatest system with the ageing Mirages,” says Air Commodore Salman M.Farooqi, deputy managing director of the Mirage Rebuild Factory (MRF) atthe Kamra complex.

Pakistan bought its first Mirages to diversify its fleet, which in the late1960s largely consisted of US-built planes: F-104 Starfighters, T-37 TweetyBirds and F-86 Sabres.

The Mirage became a popular choice, with the Air Force buying 17 differentvariants in later years, eventually owning the second-highest number of thefighter jets after France.

They performed bombing missions during Pakistan´s war with India in 1971 –one of the shortest conflicts in history, lasting just 13 days and leadingto the creation of Bangladesh.

But Mirages flew on, also carrying out reconnaissance missions in India,and intercepting and shooting down Soviet and Afghan planes that violatedPakistani airspace during the Soviet war.

Usually the jet has two or three life cycles, each spanning around 12years. But overhauling them abroad was expensive for Pakistan, a developingcountry whose budget is already disproportionately tilted towards itsmilitary and which has historically received billions in militaryassistance from countries such as the US.

So, with the help of experts from Dassault, the air force decided if youwant something done for the right price, you´ve got to do it yourself.

* Makeover*

The Mirage Rebuild Factory was established at the Pakistan AeronauticalComplex (PAC) in 1978, and in the years since has saved “billions” ofdollars for Pakistan, according to Group Captain Muhammad Farooq, in chargeof one of the maintenance hangars — though he said the exact figure wasdifficult to pin down.

The planes take some seven weeks to be overhauled and repainted, he said,adding that usually the MRF has the capacity for more than a dozen planes ayear. Its calendar for the next decade or so is already booked up.

At least eight different Mirage variants, including the Mirage 5-EF, MirageIII-DP and Mirage-III Rose-I, were in one of the maintenance hangers whenAFP visited.

Engineers and technicians were dismantling cockpit instrument panels andlanding gear while undertaking a “non-destructive inspection”, essentiallyan X-ray to detect faults in the wings and airframe.

Dozens of engines awaiting overhaul were piled in one hangar. Even planesthat had suffered accidents such as fires breaking out have been patchedback together at the facility.

Pakistan has also been buying up discarded Mirages from other countries tobring through the facility, said retired Air Marshal Shahid Lateef.

The most important technological improvement, developed with the help ofSouth Africa, is the ability to integrate air-to-air refuelling, Farooqisaid.

The “identification of friend and foe” (IFF) system, which detects when aMirage has been locked on to by the system of another plane, was also a keydevelopment, he said.

* Grand dames *

But even with the improvements and cost-saving measures, the ageing planesare becoming more difficult to maintain.

“They have outlived their lives… after their overhauls (they) have becomehighly unreliable, we even met with lots of accidents,” Lateef said.

The best option to replace them would be the Rafale, as neighbour andarch-rival India — which has also flown and maintained Mirages for decades– is doing, signing a deal with Dassault in 2016.

The price tag is too much for Pakistan, however, retired Air CommodoreTariq Yazdani said.

Instead Pakistan plans to replace them with the JF-17 Thunder aircraft thatit co-developed and co-produced with China, the original manufacturer.

Even as it becomes more urgent to phase them out, Mirages´ status as thegrand dames of Pakistani military aviation cannot be dismissed, Yazdani,who has logged 1,500 hours flying them, told AFP.

It is a “very agile aircraft capable of penetrating deep into the enemy´sterritory without being detected by radar, which makes its sole mission –to drop bombs on the enemy´s position — quite easy,” he said.

“It is an old aircraft,” said aviation writer Alan Warnes, author of twobooks on the Pakistani air force. “But Pakistani pilots have been flyingthis plane with the utmost accuracy and expertise.” – APP/AFP