F-86 Sabre The No. 26 Squadron was raised on 30 August 1967 at
PAF Base Masroor under the command of
Wing Commander Rehmat Khan. Equipped with the
F-86 Sabre, the squadron was assigned the role of
operational conversion unit and trained pilots on the F-86 Sabre. in the
gunsight of Flight Lieutinant Salim Baig's
F-86F Sabre moments before it was shot down Though two
Folland Gnats had managed to take off before the runway was disabled, one of the Gnats strayed away from the area allegedly due to low visibility while the second Gnat (flown by
Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh) engaged the No. 26 Squadron's formation but was shot down by Flight Lieutenant Salim Baig after an intense high G dogfight. During the war however, the squadron lost two Sabres along with their pilots. After flying 15 sorties, Squadron Leader M. Aslam Chaudhary's F-86F (S.No. 3856) was shot down on 10 December 1971 during a close air support mission over
Chumb when his section of two F-86 were bounced by six Indian
Hawker Hunters. Flight Lieutenant Fazal Elahi's F-86F (S.N. 4109) was shot down by ground fire on 8 December 1971 during a close air support sortie over
Zafarwal. Both Mirza and Elahi were
posthumously awarded the
Sitara-i-Juraat for their services.
Shenyang F-6C By December 1980, the
F-86 Sabre had become obsolete, thus the squadron was assigned the role of
Air superiority and re-equipped with the
Shenyang F-6 air superiority fighter.
Afghanistan-Pakistan Skirmishes During the
Soviet Afghan War, the squadron's
Officer Commanding "
Wing Commander Wali Mughni" was scrambled to investigate an unidentified aircraft which was loitering at a
no-fly zone on the
border. Wali was later informed that the aircraft was an
SU-25 and had
defected from an 8-ship formation which was on a bombing run near the border. After being intercepted, the Su-25 lowered its landing gear and wiggled its wings as a sign of
surrender. It later made a
forced landing. Before their official induction however, the squadron's JF-17s were used in
Operation Rah-e-Nijat against militants to test its weapons and effectiveness. Boeing-747 In 2015, 8 JF-17s from the
No. 16 and No. 26 Squadrons escorted
President Xi's Boeing-747 during his official visit to
Pakistan.
Exercises •
Flat Out 89 •
Wide Awake 89 •
1989 air-to-air firing camp (
PAF Base Masroor) •
ISAC 89 – inter-squadron armament competition, the squadron achieved first place and Wing Commander Wali Mughni was declared
Sher Afghan. •
ACES 89 – air combat evaluations. •
High Mark 89 •
1992 DACT camp (
PAF Base Minhas) •
Flat Out 92 •
Wide Awake 92 •
High Mark 93 – deployed at PAF Base Murid •
High Mark 95 – deployed at
PAF Base Shahbaz (Jacobabad) •
Saffron Bandit 97 •
1998 DACT camp (
PAF Base Minhas) – held from 14 to 30 December 1998, No. 26 was deployed with ten A-5C and all squadron pilots flew sorties during the deployment. Other squadrons deployed were No. 8 and No. 16 Squadrons. •
1998 Armament cyclic training (
PAF Base Mushaf, Sargodha) – ten pilots and eight A-5C deployed, 246 armament sorties flown in a 19-day period from 5 October to 24 October 1998. •
Awards: • Sarfraz Rafiqui Flight safety Trophy (1992) • Chief of Air Staff Professionals Trophy (1994) • Sarfraz Rafiqui Trophy (1994) • Sarfraz Rafiqui Trophy (1996) • Air Combat Evaluations – ACES Trophy (1996) == Aircraft flown ==