History
Newer Mirage airframes in good condition and with low flight hours were sought from various sources to supplement the PAF's own fleet of 34 Mirage IIIEP/DP/RPs and 32 Mirage 5PA/DPAs acquired directly from France between 1967 and 1982. Mirage III/V were bought from the air forces of Australia, Lebanon, Libya and France. The ROSE project was set up to reclaim as many aircraft as possible and to upgrade them with the latest avionics and other modern systems.
The project team formed to manage the project held review meetings frequently in both Pakistan and France where problems were discussed. PAC and its technical personnel were involved with parts manufacture and quality control. PAF test pilots validated performance of the new equipment during test-flights.
On 5 July 2004 it was reported that a total of 50 Mirage III and Mirage 5 fighters (Mirage 5DE and Mirage 5D), along with 150 engines still in sealed packaging and a huge quantity of spare parts, had been bought from Libya for the PAF. Most of the ex-Libyan aircraft were to be broken up for spare parts required by the Mirage fleet already in PAF service. With this purchase, the PAF was to become the largest operator of Dassault Mirage III/Mirage 5 fighters in the world.
Read more about this topic: Project ROSE
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