 "Has Pakistan violated US rules by using F-16s against India?")
It’s been four days of tensions running high between India and Pakistan. Islamabad continues to provoke and escalate the situation by using fighter jets, drones, long-range weapons, loitering munitions to attack India’s military sites.
On Saturday in a press briefing, Col Sofiya Qureshi confirmed that the Pakistani Army is continuously attacking the western borders. “It has used drones, long-range weapons, loitering munitions, and fighter jets to attack India’s military sites.” She added that India neutralised many dangers, but Islamabad tried to infiltrate via air at more than 26 places, and they damaged equipment and personnel at air force bases in Udhampur, Bhuj, Pathankot, and Bathinda.
This remark shines a light on Pakistan’s aerial power, namely its fighter jets that they have been using for the past few days, namely the US-supplied F-16. In fact, highly-placed government sources have been reported as saying that New Delhi struck down an F-16 supersonic fighter jet of the Pakistan Air Force on Friday.
If this is confirmed, it’s a violation of the US rules laid down for the use of these fighter jets. Let’s see how.
Pak’s use of F-16 against India in current standoff
On the intervening night of May 7-8, Pakistan deployed a F-16 towards India. However, the fighter jet was shot down by New Delhi, sources were reported as telling NDTV. According to the sources, the F-16 took off from the Sargodha air base in Pakistan, a key air force station of the Pakistani Air Force. However, an Indian SAM (Surface-to-air missile) shot it down near the Sargodha air base.
Following this incident, Prakash Ambedkar, a veteran Indian politician and grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, questioned the use of the F-16 by Pakistan, urging India’s prime minister and external affairs minister to take up the matter with Washington, as it violates the stipulations laid down. He wrote on X, “Pakistan and its evil designs should be exposed to the whole world!”
But are there any rules and stipulations to Pakistan’s use of the F-16?
America’s rules for Pakistan’s use of F-16s
The F-16 is the mainstay of Pakistan’s air force with one news portal, titled ‘War on the Rocks’, stating that the aircraft is an object of national pride and military strength — it appears on painted billboards across Pakistan and adorned on decorated commercial trucks that trudge along Pakistan’s highways.
The US first mooted the supply F-16s to Pakistan in the early 1980s in order incentivise Pakistan’s assistance to the United States in Afghanistan. However, with the Soviet Union’s defeat in Afghanistan in 1989, US reliance on Pakistan quickly waned. In 1990, the US slapped sanctions on Pakistan on account of the country’s undeclared nuclear weapons programme and cancelled the supply of approximately 30 F-16s that Pakistan had already purchased.
However, as The Diplomat notes in one report, the 9/11 attacks refocused Washington’s interest in the region and established Pakistan as a central cog in the US war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The then George W Bush administration agreed to release the previously blocked F-16s to Pakistan, refurbish the country’s existing F-16 aircraft, and sell Pakistan new F-16 Block-50/52 aircraft worth approximately $3 billion.
Then in 2016, the US State Department approved the sale of eight F-16s and other equipment to Pakistan worth $699 million. At the time, a US official said, “We support the proposed sale of eight F-16s to Pakistan, which we view as the right platform in support of Pakistan’s counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations.
“These operations reduce the ability of militants to use Pakistani territory as a safe haven for terrorism and a base of support for the insurgency in Afghanistan, which is in the national interests of both Pakistan and the United States, and in the interest of the region more broadly.”
However, documents reveal that the US placed a number of restrictions on the use of these fighter jets. Every F-16 sale comes with an End-Use Monitoring (EUM) agreement, which means Pakistan cannot freely use the jets.
The sole intention of selling these planes is to “strengthen Pakistan’s capacity for counter-insurgency and counterterrorism operations”.
Moreover, any use of the F-16s by Pakistan outside of the country needs prior approval from the US. There’s also a Technical Security Team ( TST), a contingent of contractors in Pakistan to monitor F-16. The TST includes US Air Force personnel stationed in Pakistan who conduct real-time monitoring of F-16 activities
It’s important to note that between 2018 and 2022, the US had paused the sale of F-16s with the Trump administration accusing Pakistan of giving only “lies and deceit” for the billions of dollars that the US had “foolishly” given it. However, in September 2022, the US President Joe Biden reversed the decision with with a $450 million package for a lifetime upgrade of Pakistan’s F-16 fleet.
Pak’s prior use of F-16s and India’s concerns
Pakistan’s use of the F-16 in the current standoff is reminiscent of 2019. On February 29, 2019, India MiG-21 Bison got into a dogfight with a PAF F-16 during the Balakot airstrike. Group Captain Abhinandan Varthaman shot down a Pakistani F-16 fighter, but in the process was captured by the enemy in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). He was later repatriated on March 1, 2019.
Months after that incident, the US State Department had written to the Pakistan air force chief pointing out that the F-16s had been moved to “unauthorised” forward operating bases in defiance of its agreement with the US. The letter, quoted by a US media organisation, said that such actions by Pakistan risked allowing these weapons to fall in the hands of “malign actors” and “could undermine our shared security platforms and infrastructures”.
In the past, India has expressed concern over US’ supply of the fighter jet to Pakistan. Following the Biden administration’s decision in 2022, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar questioned the American rationale. Moreover, when asked about the US justification that the fighter planes were meant to assist Pakistan in its counter-terrorism efforts, Jaishankar retorted: “You’re not fooling anybody by saying these things”.
With inputs from agencies
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
