Pakistan is developing an advanced landing ground in Mansehra in Pak-administered Kashmir, within striking distance of Jammu and Kashmir’s summer and winter capital’s Jammu and Srinagar. The Pakistan Air Force’s new airfield is along the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa border and is only 150 km from Srinagar and 235 km from Jammu.
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Islamabad has already allocated 1,600 million Pakistani rupees for the forward airbase and sources have indicated that PAF now believes it can aggressively and quickly target the Indian Air Force in – being only 150 km from Srinagar and 235 km from Jammu.
The Pakistan Air Force has an advanced landing ground (ALG) in Muzaffarabad, which is 50 km from Mansehra. And the new airfield can support it. Abbottabad, where Osama bin Laden was found and killed, is even closer, being just 20 km away.
The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) airfields can be a double-edged sword for Islamabad. Sure, “forward deployment” of Pakistan Air Force jets will make it more challenging for Indian air-defence systems. They will have less time to detect up the jets and challenge them.
But, a base so close to the Line of Control warrants that India can target it with standoff weapons. Any airfield about 100 km away from the LoC is vulnerable – the range of the BrahMos missile is about 300 km.
Via: Times Now
