Quwa Defence News & Analysis Group shared a publicly available import and export (EXIM) registries, According to registries the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) received three Saab 2000 aircraft on 06 April 2019.
These Saab 2000s appear to be from an order of three aircraft made by Pakistan’s Directorate General of Defence Purchases (DGDP) in February 2018.
Skyworld Aviation, an aircraft sales and leasing broker, delivered the aircraft – i.e., J-038, J-024, and J-062 – to the DGDP in November 2018. The PAF had originally ordered five Saab 2000s, i.e., four to house the Erieye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) system and one for VIP flights and training.
Saab announced on May 15, 2017, that it had received a SEK 1.35 billion AEW&C contract and Deliveries will be made from 2017 until 2020.
PAF is aiming to increase its AEWC fleet.
Pakistan also operates four ZDK-03 AEW&C aircraft that are part of 4 Squadron
As of now, After three new SAAB 2000 Erieye AEW&C aircraft induction, the PAF fleet contains 6 Erieyes in 3 Squadron and 4 ZDK-03s in Squadron 4.
The first customer for the Saab 2000 AEW&C, the Pakistan Fiza’ya (the Pakistan Air Force), placed the order with Saab, based in Stockholm, in June 2006 for Skr 6.9bn. The Government of Pakistan renegotiated part of the contract in May 2007 due to a financial crisis within the country. The contract value was reduced to Skr1.35bn.
In 2012, one of the four Erieye AEW&C was written-off, while two were seriously damaged. However, the two damaged aircraft were repaired at Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) and, in turn, resulted in PAC building depot-level maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) capabilities.
The Saab 2000 AEW&C airborne early warning and control aircraft is a variant of the Saab 2000 regional transport turboprop aircraft equipped with the spine-mounted Saab Systems Erieye PS-890 side-looking reconnaissance radar.
The aircraft, fully equipped for airborne early warning and control, can also be used for national security missions, border control, airborne command and control, disaster management coordination and for emergency air traffic control.
