2002: PAF F-16 Shoot down IAF spy UAV Searcher-II

By: VayuSena

In a year that saw India-Pakistan peacetime tensions soar to an all-time high, it was not unusual for the respective militaries to send Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) on spying missions into forbidden airspace. Kept away from the public eye, only some of these missions would be known to the media; and that too only if governments wished to derive some political or rhetorical mileage.

Occasionally, these drones would be detected and be defended against by all possible means. For their operators the price of intelligence was too high compared to the potential loss of a UAV. An Indian Air Force (IAF) Searcher-II [S/N 'T-2004'] was caught in such a situation on Friday June 07, 2002 and was ultimately lost over Pakistani land, and claimed by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) as a rare air-to-air kill of a drone at night.

The PAF claimed that the intruding aircraft was shot down at 2300 Hrs; its wreckage recovered at the Dogran Kalan village [01] (close Raja Jang town) south-west of Lahore [02], which is the capital of Pakistan's Punjab province. The victim had taken off from an airfield in Jammu [03].

Searcher-II has an endurance of 14 hours and venture out for 250 Km from the base; it can climb up to an altitude of 16,000 Ft (4875 m). It is not known to what degree it fulfilled its mission but the depth of interception was significant considering that Pakistan's Air Defence Net is strongest in Punjab. Neither is it known what pattern the Aircraft flew over Pakistan and for how long; but still it would be a mistake to take Dogran Kalan's straight distance from the International Border at Punjab as the measure of intrusion since the mission started from Jammu and/or the route taken could have been circuitous.

For Pakistan, the detection of the spy plane and its interception was projected as a proof of capability of their air defence network; even though the same can be viewed as a serious bungling judging by the distance it traveled into Pakistan.

At a press conference held at PAF Chakala on June 10, Then PAF Chief of Air Staff ACM Mushaff Ali Mir made wild allegations of direct involvement of Israeli personnel in the mission, based on the fact that it supposedly did not have any Indian markings. He also felt that the aircraft was inducted only a few months back in a "hurry" [04]. In any case, none of the publicly available pictures of IAF Searchers show any conventional IAF markings such as Roundels and Fin Flash, except for the serial number.

The interception was carried out by a PAF F-16 Falcon flown by Sqn Ldr Zulfiqar at 13,000 ft [04]. ACM Mir's statement; "The UAV was spotted by the mobile observation units when it crossed into Pakistani territory and was immediately gunned down" substantiates that the intruder was not detected by a radar. The wreckage photos show the remains of a AIM-9L Sidewinder AAM, probably the one which downed the UAV. AIM-9L is the more sophisticated than the AIM-9P version of the missile, which is also in service with the PAF.

The PAF went as far as to say that they would study the wreckage extensively in order to further their grasp of the technology, which would correspondingly give them a "leap of 8-10 years". [04]

Indian external affairs officials admitted losing contact with a UAV in that region, but described it as a routine matter. In a statement issued to the Indian Parliament on 18 July 2002 then Indian Raksha Mantri (Defence Minister) George Fernandes acknowledged the UAV being "shot down by a Pakistan Air Force aircraft" [05].

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• 2002
• IAF
• Searcher-II
• spy
• UAV
• Shoot
• down
• by
• PAF
• F-16
• Aim-9l

[anthonymaw]

how fucked up is American foreign policy when American-made fighter jets supplied to a questionable "ally" shoots down American controlled recon planes violating that same country's sovreignty?

[MrTheCorrupter]

@aa2398a lol lol lol...were do u get statistic from?? manmohan Singh premier over a billon plus people with a hindu majority, president kalam supreme commander over a billion plus people...sharukh,Salman and the likes whose total earnings will cross the pakistani gdp...and then me, an oppressed chrisitan;)...haha.Dude, wake up.Peace is the only way.Religious fundamentalism will destroy you.You cannot keep up or compete, so just take care of urselves and your misconceptions.Jai hind.

[aa2398a]

Where did I bring religion into it? And don’t talk about shithole. Pakistans still much cleaner than your filthy slum-infested country ---with 650 million toilet-less people.

Baloch are not oppressed people. Many are in top positions in Pakistan; there are Baloch in the armed forces, in the nuclear program as well. The oppressed people are Muslims in india –and we saw what happened to them in Gujrat, just like we saw what happen to oppressed dalits, Sikhs, Christians too.

[MrTheCorrupter]

@aa2398a Inshallah my ass...why do you bring your religion into politics I dont understand.This is why ur shithole always stays a shithole.Yeah you Pakistani - exactly balochistan -free the oppressed people you dirty punjabis.Selling your brothers out to the Americans and Chinese .Yeah india has malyalam,tamil,kannada, telugu,bodo,oriya,hindi,urdu,p­unjabi,kashmiri..konkani and many many more.So how do we break up??its just wet dreams of zaid hamid and villagers like u.Takbeeer takbeer..my aSS

[aa2398a]

@MrTheCorrupter

you really are retard....something about Baloch?

what about your tamils, sikhs, bodos, assamese, bengalis and naxals??? LOL!!!!! india will be broken up within next 50-60 years....Inshallah

[MrTheCorrupter]

@lol38810 but anyways, sorry for interrupting.;)

[MrTheCorrupter]

@lol38810 Before even the time in which people started migrating to ottoman turkey.The Indus valley civilization blossomed as the worlds educational center.The first ever university in the world is in Taxi la - which comes in the subcontinent.Many a religion has taken birth in India and many a principal of morality is taken down from the Veda.Western and central asian history is zilt compared to that of Egypt, India and China with the exception of greece.Enough for real;) history??

[lol38810]

@MrTheCorrupter uuhhh im not pakistani so i don't care about their history!

and that history was from th ottmans but yah you wouldn't understand what real history is

[MrTheCorrupter]

American helicopters flew and dropped farts on the faces of your commanders, and killed your last king "Osama Laden".The paki bedouin commanders who took training from zaid hamid university being true to their caliber whiffed up the stench like how they were accustomed to during the 4 straight losses with India resulting in pathetic international ridicule.And can you believe, still they survive on american alms and still the Americans bomb the frontier.Free Balochistan you dirty punjabis.