There was a single squadron plus (3 training craft ), They were used for Air Defence. They did fine in that role. As high altitude bombers, not so much.
It was retired right after the war.
Right so numbers were too small to have a big impact on the 71 war and even then 2 were lost to fishbeds w/o shooting down any in return
in 65 , f-104 bagged a mystair but was mortally hit in the process
when did PAF use F-104 as high altitude bombers ? I thought even the low level strike missions it flew which resulted in the loss of HF-24s in 71 were basically strafing runs with its vulcan cannon
As a nightfighter the F-104 was probably most useful , otherwise as a day fighter I think the F-86 and F-6 scored more kills
so was it retired due to inability to get spares for the existing fleet and unable to acquire more improved models ? or because it was so much inferior to other types in PAF at the time
IF PAF had access to upgraded G models in larger quantities arguably it would have seen service till 80s
Since Turkey /Japan airforces with almost 100+ F-4s in 70s/80s kept even the F-104G/J operational till mid to late 80s , not to mention the S version which obviously was far superior to other versions