History

In 1971 which is 5 years after the induction of F-6 in PAF, it was realized that these Aircraft have started falling due for overhaul and in the absence of a pertinent facility in country they are to be sent to China for overhaul which is resulting in huge amounts of spending in terms of foreign exchange and is generating undesirable down time for every Aircraft. With this background the commanders of Pakistan Air Force at that time decided to embark on the colossal task of creating an indigenous overhauling facility for the F6 fleet. After successful negotiations with the OEM at China and Chinese government establishment of this facility was started at Kamra under the supervision of Chinese experts. This facility was completed and first Aircraft was rolled out in 1974.Having gained the experience of overhauling of a Chinese origin Aircraft it was decided that a similar facility for the next biggest fleet of Pakistan Air Force i-e; French origin Mirages be established. After necessary homework in this direction the project for establishing Mirage Rebuild Factory (MRF) was started in 1974 and it successfully rolled out the first Mirage in 1980.Having gained the experience of overhauling both Chinese and Western origin Aircraft natural course of action was to enter the arena of Aircraft Manufacturing. As a humble beginning a light trainer Aircraft MFI-17 was selected for indigenous Manufacturing. As the Manufacturing facility demanded higher degree of core capability yet another factory had to be initiated for accommodating this area. After successful negotiation with the Swedish OEM Aircraft Manufacturing Factory was started in 1975 which produced the first indigenous MFI-17 (Mushak) in 1983.

As all these factories are co-located at Kamra they were placed under the umbrella of Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC). The journey in the aviation industry did not stop here because it was felt that the Eyes and Ears of these potent platforms (Ground Base Radar) are not being looked after indigenously and are still creating blind pockets because of prolong downtimes owing to major maintenance abroad. To cater for this adverse situation once again an indigenous facility had to be established, so it was decided to establish Kamra Avionics and Radar Factory (KARF) once again under the umbrella of Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC). Later in years once the influence of avionics systems increased tremendously on capability and performance of the aircraft, a complete setup for the avionics maintenance was embedded into KARF. The expertise developed during overhauling of ground radars came handy at KARF and today KARF stands out as the most advanced avionics facility in the country. Similarly the experience of manufacturing a light aircraft gave Aircraft Manufacturing Factory (AMF) the impetus to go into a co-designing and development program for manufacturing of a Jet Aircraft. Once again the Pak-China friendship played a vital role and K-8 project was initiated at AMF. The project culminated as production of a Jet-Trainer co-designed and produced by Pakistan and China in 1994. AMF is involved even today in manufacturing of about 20% of the structure of K-8 at these facilities. This background of AMF was considered good enough to venture into the area of indigenous production of a jet fighter aircraft i.e how AMF is now fully involved in the national program of co-producing JF-17 thunder Aircraft with China.