Military

A PAF Dassault Mirage 5 ROSE strike fighter, with FLIR sensor under the nose, taxiing past a PAF JF-17.

Pakistan's nuclear-capable Babur cruise missile

PAF Special Services Wing carrying FN F2000 rifles while on training at Fort Lewis, Wash. in USA on, July 23, 2007.
Main article: Military of Pakistan
Further information: War in North-West Pakistan
The armed forces of Pakistan are the sixth-largest in the world. The three main services are the Army, Navy and the Air Force, supported by a number of paramilitary forces which carry out internal security roles and border patrols. The National Command Authority is responsible for exercising employment and development control of all strategic nuclear forces and organizations, and for Pakistan's nuclear doctrine.
The Pakistan Army came into existence after independence in 1947 and is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan Army is a volunteer professional fighting force.[73] The provision of conscription exists in the Pakistani constitution, but it has never been imposed. It has an active force of 750,000 personnel and 600,000 men in reserve.
Since independence, the Army has been involved in four wars with neighboring India and several border skrimishes with Afghanistan. It maintained division and brigade strength presences in some of the Arab countries during the past Arab-Israeli Wars, and aided the Coalition in the first Gulf War. Other major operations undertaken by the Army include Operation Black Thunderstorm and Operation Rah-e-Nijat. Apart from conflicts, the Army has been an active participant in UN missions and played a major role in rescuing trapped American soldiers from Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993 in Operation Gothic Serpent.
The Pakistan military first saw combat in the First Kashmir War, gaining control of what is now Azad Kashmir. In 1961, the army repelled a major Afghan incursion on Pakistan's western border. Pakistan and India would be at war again in 1965 and in 1971. In 1973, the military quelled a Baloch nationalist uprising. During the Soviet-Afghan war, Pakistan shot down several intruding pro-Soviet Afghan aircraft and provided covert support to the Afghan mujahideen through the Inter-Services Intelligence agency. In 1999, Pakistan was involved in the Kargil conflict with India. Currently, the military is engaged in an armed conflict with extremist Islamic militants in the north-west of the country.

Internationally the Pakistani armed forces contributed to United Nations peacekeeping efforts, with more than 10,700 personnel deployed in 2009, and are presently the largest contributor. In the past, Pakistani personnel have volunteered to serve alongside Arab forces in conflicts with Israel. Pakistan provided a military contingent to the U.N.-backed coalition in the first Gulf War. The Pakistani troops were rushed to Makkah on Saudi Government's request and Pakistani SSG commandos lead the operation of the Grand Mosque Seizure. During the Six-Day War in 1967 and Yom Kippur War in October 1973 PAF pilots volunteered to go to the Middle East in order to support Egypt and Syria in a state of war against Israel, PAF pilots shot down 10 IAF planes in Six-Day War and 4 IAF planes in the Yom Kippur War, while losing none.
Pakistan's military employs armaments that include atomic weapons, mobile vehicle ballistic missile systems, laser communication systems, armored cars and tanks, and multi-role fighter/bomber jets.
Since 2004, Pakistani armed forces are engaged in fighting against Pakistani Taliban groups. Ever since the militant groups have been retaliating by suicide bombings in Pakistani cities, killing more than 3,000 civilians and armed personnels only in 2009.