Ground Forces
Both sides can be represented by standard infantry, artillary, light and medium armor counters. Neither side would possess what is considered heavy armor in game terms in 1965.
Final Comments:
Both sides favored the low altitude, low speed dogfight. Generally speaking, since the war was fought with mostly Korean War era weaponry, little was learned that had not been learned before. The PAF fired 33 AIM-9B Sidewinders in combat and destroyed 9 aircraft with them, which shows that the early missiles were effective prior to the development of decoys. The war did reiterate that solid tactics and training can overcome deficiencies in numbers and quality. The PAF was greatly outnumbered and the Hunter was considered to be superior in performance to the Sabre. In spite of this, the PAF held their own and gave an honorable account of themselves. I sincerely hope tht recreating this conflict proves educational and enjoyable as well.
Editor's Note:
The Campaign scenarios Bob refers to are Air Superiority General Scenarios G-15 and G-16 which were printed in issues #3 and #5 of Air Power respectively. As forAircraft Data Cards: The MG-21F, Hunter, Mystere IV, Ouragan, and Vampire data cards were originally printed in the Desert Falcons module published by GDW which is now out of print. The Hunter and Mystere in this issue are new cards done in the second edition format. The Sabre was originally printed in issue #7 of Air Power. This issue's Sabre is the revised 2d edition card of the same. The Gnat makes its first appearance here. The Canberra data card does not yet exist. The T-33 is a variant of the F-80 data card also published in AP #7.
Aircraft Appearance Tables for Campaign Scenarios
Die Roll = Type
Pakistani Fighters:
1-7 = F-86F Sabre
8-9 = F-86F 6-3 with AIM-9B
10 = F-104A with AIM-9B
Pakistani Strike aircraft:
1 = T-33 Shooting Star
2 = B-57 Canberra or T-33
3-4 = F-86F 6-3
5-10 = F-86F standard
Indian Fighters:
1-3 = Gnat Mk. 1
4-8 = Hawker Hunter
9-10 Mystere IV
Indian Strike aircraft:
1-4 = Hawker Hunter
5-6 = Mystere IV
7-8 = Ouragan/Toofani
9 = Canberra
10 = Vampire
Dispute Over Kashmir 1965 Indo-Pakistan Air War
Back to Table of Contents -- Air Power # 18
Back to Air Power List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Magazine List
© Copyright 1991 by J.D. Webster
This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com