第六部分英文原文

At the same time, the Airpower Combat Employment (ACE) facility at PAF Base Mushaf, created in 2016, was upgraded considerably into one of the best tactical training ranges in the world. In 2023 it was relabelled the Aerospace Power Centre of Excellence (ACE). ACE is where PAF pilots and GCIs can test their capabilities and skills against each other and with international allies during Indus Shield exercises. Two have taken place to date, in 2023 and 2024. During the latter, 24 nations, including observers, participated with Royal Saudi Air Force Tornados, Turkish Air Force F-16C/Ds and Egypt F-16Cs present. A senior officer told me: “We embraced fifth-dimensional warfare, with a highly effective cyber force that we built with support from the National Aerospace Science Technology Park [NASTP]. The aim is to support PAF ops, both kinetic and non-kinetic effects. We practice everything at ACE.”

NASTP is an interesting development, a bold leap into the future that wasn’t even an idea when the author last visited in 2020, where academia, industry and the government are linked together through an impressive ecosystem. It isn’t just a technology park for innovation; it has been created to pursue the Air Chief’s vision of a launchpad for strategic autonomy.

The level of intelligence being gleaned from India through different domains, as the author observed at the NIIAOC, is quite unbelievable. The author was allowed exclusive access to the facility, where even the most senior officers are often not allowed to visit.

Every Indian base could be monitored, every aircraft from the moment of lift-off in Western Command was tracked. There are Pakistani eyes everywhere. During my time with the PAF it was obvious there was nothing the PAF didn’t know about the IAF.

From the start of the contingency op and as the tension with India escalated, the PAF Commander made the command centre his home, snatching sleep whenever possible on a mattress in a side room. He said he felt it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and he didn’t want to miss anything. Alongside him in the command centre were the heads of all the new integrated domains, EW, Cyber and Space; there were air defence controllers, along with the head of the main kinetic force – the fighters in the air. He consulted with them, before making decisions in what the PAF calls ‘centralised control and decentralised execution’.

Several officers who worked with the CAS, told the author how the ‘boss’, as they refer to him, took the lead on everything, even telling the J-10C pilots when and where to fire.