Mirage Rebuild Factory
The Mirage Rebuild Factory (MRF), founded official as P-741, is a dedicated plant for overhauling and reverse engineering of the French-made Dassault Aviation's fighter jets in service with the Pakistan Air Force.[12] Establishment of the Mirage Rebuild Factory was a result of long and complicated negotiation took place between the Pakistan and French administrations.[10]
The MRF was a long-sought effort by the Bhutto administration which was engaged in complicated and lengthy trade negotiations with the French government to allow license-built production of the Mirage III and Mirage V aircraft.[10] The plant was established in 1974 and commenced operations in 1975; for the P-741, the first two digits show the year of project approval and launch, the third digit is a serial designator.[10] Based on the French guidance and design replication, the first Mirage III aircraft was successfully built, produced, and overhauled in 1980.[12]
Although, no longer produced and developed by the French Dassault Aviation, the MRF still produces, builds, and manufactures airframes for the Mirage jets including machining of the key components.[12] Due to lack of budget for replacing outdated aircraft, the MRF was devoted to domestically overhauling them, which according to claims, saved the country billions of Pakistani taxpayers's financial capital in US currency.[14]
In 1980, the French government agreed on proposal with Zia administration on approving the sale of designs of designs of the Atar 09c engines as well as establishing the MRO facility that expanded the work scope of the factory.[12]
Later, the successful negotiations between the United States and Pakistan allowed the MRF to overhaul and machined key parts of the American Pratt & Whitney F100 turbofan engines for the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon.[12] The MRF, under permission and licensed under the United States laws, replicate designs and machines key parts as a broad maintenance and repair efforts for keeping the F-16A/B Fighting Falcon and F-16C/D Viper in service with the nation's air force.[12]
The plant is certified and qualified to award the ISO/IEC 17025 and the ISO 9000 under approved by the Pakistan National Accreditation Council and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation.[15]
<!-===Project ROSE=== Project ROSE ("Retrofit Of Strike Element"[16]) was a program initiated by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Pakistan Aeronautical Complex for the upgrades of the military avionics and electronics system of its aging Dassault Aviation– built Mirage fighter jets.[17] The program focused on modernization of military avionics and on-board computer system of Mirage IIIE and the Mirage V supplied by Pakistani Margella Electronics, French SAGEM and the Italian SELEX consortiums, as part of the program.[18]
Conceived in 1992 by the Pakistan Air Force, the program started in 1995 on main considerations of retiring the A–5 Fantan from active service.[16] The Pakistan Air Force, which already was operating Dassault Mirage IIIs and Dassault Mirage 5s, began its procurement of second-hand Mirage fighters from Australia, Lebanon, Libya, and Spain at the price range within the MoD's fund.[19] Over 90% of the aircraft were retrofitted at the Aeronautical Complex in Kamra; few were upgraded in France.[19] From 1996–2000, several Mirage IIIE and Mirage 5 were bought from the other countries and were upgraded under this program at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex.[19] In this project the avionics of the aircraft were increased and in-flight refueling was added. Due to this, the range and combat radius of the fighter jet was increased, new grifo fire control radars having about 75 km range were introduced which gave the aircraft capability to fire BVR missiles if needed, the metallurgy of aircraft was overhauled and service life was increased. The capability to do take offs and landings from motorways was also added, after the Rose-3 upgrading the locally manufactured standoff weapons like
It is currently expected that all of the ROSE-upgraded Mirage fighters jets will remain in combat service with the Pakistan Air Force beyond 2020 in specialized Tactical Attack roles. They are expected to be replaced by JF–17 Thunder (Block-3, Block-4 and Block-5) or additional F-16s. Already a page for it ->
