1942–1962: Austers, Bird Dogs and a flight split at Lahore

Pakistan’s army aviation began as a share of a British squadron. No. 659 (Air OP) Squadron of the Royal Air Force, which spotted for the artillery and had come to India in October 1945, was disbanded at Lahore on 14 August 1947 and divided between the two new states. The next day Pakistan’s share became No. 1 Air Observation Post Flight, at first part of the Pakistan Air Force and flying Austers. It became a squadron, officially raised on 20 June 1956; GlobalSecurity dates its autonomy from the air force to 1958, when its crews trained in the United States, and an army aviation school opened on 1 January 1959. About 60 Cessna O-1 Bird Dogs, assembled by the army’s 503 Workshop at Dhamial, replaced the Austers in 1957. On 15 October 1962 Dhamial, a wartime para training field outside Rawalpindi, became the army’s first air base, replacing the air force’s Chaklala.

1964–1971: the first helicopters, two wars and a retreat through Burma

Helicopters arrived on 27 June 1964, when 18 crated Bell OH-13 Sioux were delivered to Dhamial and assembled by an American team. In the 1965 war, GlobalSecurity says, the army’s helicopters flew spotting, liaison and forward air control. Alouette IIIs followed from 18 October 1967 and Soviet Mi-8s from 1969. In 1971 Mi-8s and Alouettes flew in East Pakistan, and when the Eastern Command surrendered, GlobalSecurity says, the helicopters were withdrawn to Burma. Dhamial was renamed Qasim Army Aviation Base on 12 December 1972 after Major Muhammad Qasim, honoured for his sacrifice in that war. Wikipedia’s claim that the corps received its first attack helicopters from Iran in 1970 could not be corroborated and is not repeated elsewhere on this page.

1973–1992: gifts, Pumas, Cobras and the glacier

The 1970s fleet was built largely from gifts: six UH-1Hs from the United States in 1973 and ten AB 205As from Iran in 1974, according to GlobalSecurity, then Bell 206B trainers from 1975, 32 SA 330 Pumas from 1976 and licence-built MFI-17 Mushshak light aircraft. The corps received full status in 1977 or 1978 (GlobalSecurity and Wikipedia differ). The first attack helicopters were American: ten AH-1F Cobras arrived on 9 January 1985 and ten more in October 1986, forming two squadrons. When India occupied the Siachen glacier passes in April 1984, the corps’ light helicopters became the lifeline of Pakistani posts at extreme altitude; Lamas, six bought from Romania in 1987, were suited to it. On 1 August 1992, according to Wikipedia, Pakistani helicopters near Bahadur post were hit by an Indian Igla missile, killing the Force Commander Northern Areas, Brigadier Masood Navid Anwari; a Pakistani account was not found.

1994–2014: blue helmets, an earthquake and the war in the north-west

From the 1990s the corps flew abroad and at home. A Cobra squadron deployed to Somalia with the UN in 1994, and Pakistani Cobras later saw action in Sierra Leone. Mi-17s arrived from the mid-1990s. After the Kashmir earthquake of October 2005, for which Wikipedia gives an official Pakistani toll of 73,276 to 87,350 dead, GlobalSecurity says army helicopters flew 4,000 hours in October alone. In 2007 the United States handed over 26 Bell 412s and refurbished Cobras, in 2009 four Mi-17s for counter-terrorism, and in 2010 Jordan passed on 16 AH-1Fs under a US-sponsored programme. The war against militants in the north-west put the corps in combat for years: Cobras over Swat in 2009 and North Waziristan from June 2014. It cost aircraft and lives, among them 26 security personnel in an Mi-17 crash in Orakzai on 3 July 2009.

2015–2025: the attack helicopter that never came, and the one that did

Replacing the Cobra proved harder than buying it. In April 2015 the US approved the possible sale of 15 AH-1Z Vipers; by May 2019, Wikipedia says, nine had been built but were stored in Arizona because of friction between Washington and Islamabad, and the order remains on hold. Pakistan tried Chinese Z-10s in 2015 and rejected them over the engine, then pursued Turkey’s T129, a deal reported cancelled in June 2022; Wikipedia ties the failure of both the AH-1Z and T129 deals to worsening relations with the United States. Four Russian Mi-35Ms arrived in 2018 under a $153 million deal. In the end the corps returned to China: Field Marshal Asim Munir inducted the first Z-10MEs at Multan Garrison on 2 August 2025, without saying how many; Wikipedia gives 40 ordered. Two crashes in 2022 — a Puma with UN peacekeepers in the Congo and a helicopter that killed a corps commander at Lasbela — were reminders of an ageing fleet.

What the corps has, and what is not known

Wikipedia credits the corps with 393 helicopters and 268 fixed-wing aircraft, from Cobras and Mi-17s to Bell 412s, AW139s, Pumas, Fennecs and VIP jets. Those numbers are not official and do not all add up: the 233 Mushshak trainers it lists, for example, compare with 115 bought in GlobalSecurity’s account. The army publishes no order of battle, and its websites could not be reached for this page. In the May 2025 conflict with India no role for army aviation was published by either side; Pakistan reported that its forces had neutralised 77 Indian drones, a claim of the army’s air defence rather than its aviation. What is clear is the shape of the corps: a large utility and transport helicopter force that underpins the army in the mountains and the north-west, and an attack helicopter fleet in the middle of a long and politically awkward change from American to Chinese machines.

Current fleet and orders

Bell, Aérospatiale, Cessna, Changhe, Mil, AgustaWestland, Airbus Helicopters, Beechcraft, Enstrom, Gulfstream, Harbin, IAR, Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, Schweizer

Former fleet

Agusta, Auster