Between 2007 and 2026, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) grew its special mission fleet from a handful of legacy reconnaissance and electronic warfare (EW) platforms into an integrated architecture spanning over seven airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, stand-off electronic attack (EA) systems, persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) via unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and fighter-borne photo-reconnaissance and target-acquisition.
In the process, the PAF built the world’s largest Saab 2000-based Erieye AEW&C fleet, validated its electronic warfare (EW) capabilities in two significant combat operations – i.e., Operation Swift Retort (February 2019) and Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos (May 2025) – and laid the groundwork for a highly extensive network-enabled warfare stack integrating manned aircraft, drones, and space-based assets under a single command authority.
A Brief History of the PAF’s Special Mission Fleets
The PAF’s adoption of special mission aircraft predates this review period (2007-2026), but understanding the platforms that came before 2007 – and the gaps they left – will help explain why PAF Air Headquarters (AHQ) made the investments it did between 2007 and 2026.
The service’s first dedicated photo-reconnaissance aircraft was the Lockheed RT-33A. Six RT-33As were delivered in 1957 under United States military assistance or aid, with serials 53-5090, 53-5491, 53-5517, 53-5533, and 53-5335 among those identified in PAF records.1 They were assigned to No. 20 Squadron at Mauripur (now Masroor) Air Base, Karachi.
The RT-33A was a derivative of the T-33 Shooting Star trainer, fitted with cameras in the nose section for tactical imagery collection. Its utility was limited by short range, modest sensor capability, and the aircraft’s vulnerability at operational altitudes.2 By the 1965 war with India, the RT-33A was already being phased out of the reconnaissance role, and by 1971, it played no meaningful part in operations.
A more capable platform arrived in December 1962, when the Martin RB-57B Canberra entered PAF service with No. 24 Squadron at Peshawar.3 The RB-57Bs were tasked with specialist surveillance and electronic intelligence (ELINT) roles – a significant step beyond the RT-33A’s purely photographic function.
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