The US has decided to supply two new P-3C Orion aircraft to Pakistan to replace the ones destroyed in the terrorist attack on PNS Mehran base in Karachi last month.
Sources said the US would also supply new F-16 aircraft and spare parts to Pakistan. The four-engine, all-weather aircraft is designed for operations against submarines and surface vessels alike. It can attain speed of up to 750km per hour and has a 4,300km flying range.
The aircraft can carry a wide array of weapons such as harpoons, torpedoes, depth charges, mines and rockets Earlier, David Ignatius wrote in an opinion piece in The Washington Post that the US should be expected to replace the two recently-destroyed P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft it gave to Pakistan once the two countries overcome the current strains and forge ties under a new framework in which Islamabad becomes a more sovereign partner.
