Pakistan was one of the first export customers of the Shenyang F-6 and also the largest one as they took delivery of more than 260 units in total.
As Pakistan clashed with India in 1964, the USA placed a weapons embargo on both countries so Pakistan that traditionally relied on the USA as a weapons supplier, faced a dilemma: Unlike India, they couldn't count on the USSR to get military assistance, so when the Chinese offered to sell the F-6 which, back then was considered as quite modern, they accepted.
In September 1965 a contract was signed and in October a group of Pakistani pilots were sent to China to overtake conversion training. The first 60 F-6s began to arrive at Sargodha Air Base, close to Faisalabad, in December 1965 and by March 1966 the delivery was completed. Those 60 machines were assigned to the Pakistani Air Force (PAF), with a further 125 late-model F-6C plus an unknown number of FT-6 trainers being delivered later from 1978 onwards at a nominal price. In fact, entire batches were set aside at Shenyang's factory to be sent to Pakistan. However, some other sources claim that, in 1965, only 40 machines were exported and 100 were sent later.
China also built an overhaul plant for the PAF's F-6 at Kamra, close to Peshawar, at no cost, which was commissioned on 8th November 1980. This plant was absolutely needed because the airframe of the F-6 had a time between overhauls (known commonly with the acronym of TBO) of just 800 hours. Hence, the fighters had to be taken back to China for overhaul at frequent intervals and, as the overhaul could take as long as two years, the PAF's combat capability was severely affected with just 40 F-6 out of service at any time, it was completely unacceptable.
The Kamra overhaul plant also undertook some upgrade works on the F-6, integrating some Western avionics and AIM-9B/J Sidewinder air-to-air missiles when the US embargo was lifted. The missile racks for the Sidewinder missiles were set outboard of the drop tank hardpoints. An IFF blade aerial antenna was also fitted on the port side of the nose, immediately aft of the air intake. Some F-6 were also fitted with Martin-Baker Mk.10L zero-zero ejection seats, while other were fitted with a locally-designed 750 L (198 Us Gal/164 UK Gal) conformal belly tank, freeing the regular drop-tank hardpoints for additional weapons. Some Pakistani F-6 fighters also flew with non-standard drop tanks, known as Misawa tip tanks borrowed from the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star.
Sources:
1. Midland Publishing - Aerofax - Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19. The Soviet Union's First Production Supersonic Fighter
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenyang_J-6
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
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