Masters of Mirage Maintenance. Story of Mirage Rebuild Factory (MRF).

Описание: PAF has more than 270 Mirages both Mirage IIIs and Mirage Vs.
Its quiet a job to maintain these 1960s-era fighters airworthy
In 1978 after a decade of buying 1st batch of 24 Mirage IIIEP, DP and RP Jets, The PAF leadership established The Mirage Rebuild Factory (MRF).
Which to date has worked on more than 350 Mirages and 2300 of their Atar 09C Engines.
MRF Recovered 19 Structurally damaged aircraft
Upgraded 36 Former Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Mirage IIIs to Retrofit of Strike Element (ROSE 1) standard
And Modernized 14 Mirage VEFs to ROSE III.
Then a recent enhancement added aerial refueling Systems,
From the outset, PAF wanted to overhaul its Mirages in Pakistan.
Sending Mirages to France would be costly & will take minimum 18 Months out of country & service
Work to set up the factory – originally known as Project 741 – got the green light in March 1974.
All 24 Mirage IIIs bought in 1967 would require overhaul in 1975. Or 9 years after they were manufactured
And by then 28 Brand New Mirage VPAs were already delivered.
Plan was to overhaul all the Mirage IIIs till 1978 before start of work on Mirage Vs
On May 3, 1978 1st Mirage IIIEP, 67-101 (Later named Old baba), Flew to PAC Kamra.
11 days later MRF was inaugurated at the new factory.
On December 11, 1979, 67-101 made its 1st overhaul flight
before being handed over to PAF on February 20, 1980.
President Zia ul Haq was chief guest when OLD BABA was handed over to PAF
By 1987 all the Older Mirages were overhauled
MRF factory did so good that it got contract from United Arab Emirates for overhaul of Mirages
UAE was responsible for Spare parts and MRF was responsible for Maintanaince
After 6 overhaul of 6 jets the project ended because UAE failed to acquire spare parts
A Mirage Plane required overhaul after 1800 flying hours or 11-14 years
After GV-1 (Ground Visit-1) a plane is good for another 2000 hours and 10-14 of service
Right Now all PAF Mirages have complete GV-II and are now GV-III is also complete
And the 1st plane was again 67-101 and process took almost 4 years
By Mid-2000s PAF decided to stop GV-III on Mirages as it was expected that they will be phased out by 2015. But who knows that in 2019 Abhinandan will come & we have to use this old horse in 2019
But PAF & PAC Kamra decided for a “Mini GV” which would see mirages after 6 years rather than 10
Then a new spares of Mirages discovered in Libya, and PAF started a new Project called “Delta-Mini GV” that was carried out after Mini-GV.
MRF also took the responsibility of overhaul of SAAB 2000 aircraft.
Then there is a Components overhauling wing, which started work in 1975
This wing can overhaul and produce 10,000 components every year.
It Includes a Clean Room that was setup in 1980 for overhauling highly sophisticated components such as the Gyro Center. Which requires controlled atmospheric conditions.
Now this facility make and test more sophisticated JF-17 oxygen system components testing facility
Factory has “Fuselage Structural Repair Facility” at Kamra. Mirage V 70-415 was involved in a mishap
To Date 19 PAF Mirages More than a Squadrons strength has been recovered at relatively minimal cost
Wing Commander Rafiq Awan 63. He served PAF for 44 years. 40 years on Mirage.
Joined MRF February 1978. He retired in 2006 as Squadron leader, he was re employed as a civilian. And received his current rank in 2015.
He was involved in the recovery of SAAB 2000. 3 were damaged, 2 were repaired but 3rd one was beyond repair. Sohail Aman sb entered successful negotiations with SAAB in 2015 and was able to get “Spares Support Package”
PAF Mirages are using older Libyan Mirage Wings which are in best conditions as Libya hardly use their mirages
A state of the art paint shop is there where we paint F-16, Mirages, JF-17 DF-20 & SAAB 2000 AWACS
An Engine Overhaul wind was also established in March 1982. To overhaul Mirages Atar 09C
Every Engines enters this Facility every 800 hours. Engine overhaul took 4-6 Months.
This Facility Accomodates Engines of K-8, F-16, C-130 and T-37.
But PAF will be phased out and Mirage Rebuild Factory will have new roles in coming years.