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.
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