Introduction:
The Pakistan Navy (PN) and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) conducted a joint exercise in the North Arabian Sea – RIBAT-2018 – from 24 February to 06 March 2018 to “validate … war fighting concepts under evolving multi-faceted threats” involving both “conventional and sub conventional” threats.[1] RIBAT-2018 placed “special emphasis” on enhancing the “interoperability between naval and air assets”.[2]
The joint-exercise contributes to Pakistan’s efforts to secure its littoral waters and its exclusive economic zone (EEZ). In part, this security is to occur through a credible anti-access and area-denial (A2/AD) posture for conventional threats along with a robust coverage and reaction element asymmetrical challenges.
This specific exercise tends to both aspects, but with an emphasis on effectively leveraging Pakistan’s air assets with its naval surface platforms. For example, the utilization of aircraft radars on maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) for stand-off range targeting and guiding anti-ship missiles (AShM), among other tasks. The exercise also drew upon the PN’s coastal and logistics units.
However, RIBAT-2018’s relevance relates to another aspect, i.e. the importance Pakistan could be placing on strengthening its maritime air operations capabilities. The specific technical aspects of this area have been discussed in previous Quwa Premium articles. This article will lean on the organizational aspects of the conventional warfare aspect, such as how the PN and PAF collaborated in previous years to fulfil their respective maritime operations requirements and the future of these service arms’ cooperation.
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