The RPAF began with a paper share allotment of 2,332 personnel, a fleet of 24 Tempest II fighter-bombers, 16 Hawker Typhoon fighters, two H.P.57 Halifax bombers, two Auster aircraft, twelve North American Harvard trainers and ten de Havilland Tiger Moth biplanes.

In 1948, the Faqir of Ipi took control of North Waziristan's Datta Khel area and declared the establishment of an independent Pashtunistan, with support from neighbouring Kingdom of Afghanistan.

In response to the Faqir's rebellion, Pakistan Air Force in June 1949 inadvertently bombed the Afghan village of Mughalgai on the Waziristan border with Afghanistan while chasing the Pashtunistan separatists who attacked Pakistani border posts from Afghanistan, this attack came to known as Mughalgai raid which left 23 separatists dead and further fuelled Afghan support for Pashtunistan.

On 10 April 1959, on the occasion of the Eid ul-Fitr festival holiday in Pakistan, an Indian Air Force (IAF) English Electric Canberra B(I)58 of No.

[10][11][12] Between 1960 and 1961, Royal Afghan Army troops along with thousands of Pashtun tribesmen from Afghanistan crossed the extremely porous Pakistan–Afghanistan border and entered the semi-autonomous Bajaur Agency of Pakistan in an effort to annex the region.

[16] According to retired PAF Air Commodore Sajad Haider, the F-86 Sabre was inferior in terms of both power and speed to the IAF's Hawker Hunter.

[27] On 22 November 1971, 10 days before the start of a full-scale war, four PAF F-86 Sabre jets attacked Indian and Mukti Bahini positions at Garibpur, near the international border.

[28] On 3 December, India formally declared war against Pakistan following massive preemptive strikes by the PAF against IAF installations in Srinagar, Ambala, Sirsa, Halwara and Jodhpur.

In 1983, when the first batch of F-16s reached Pakistan, ACM Shamim informed Zia of the PAF's increasing capability to effectively respond to an attack on the nuclear research facilities at Kahuta.

[40] After the Pressler amendment was passed, the United States placed sanctions and an arms embargo on Pakistan starting on 6 October 1990 due to the continuance of the country's nuclear weapons research programme.

In 1992, the PAF once again looked towards the French Mirage 2000, reviving a proposal from the early 1980s to procure around 20–40 aircraft, but a sale did not occur because France did not want to sell a fully capable version due to pressure from the United States.

[42] In mid-1992, Pakistan was close to signing a contract for the supply of 40 Dassault Mirage 2000s, equipped with Thomson-CSF RDM/7 radars from France, although U.S. sanctions also prevented this deal from finalizing.

The offensive was to be completed as quickly as possible to allow the refugees to return to their homes but the army's fleet attack helicopters were insufficient to provide adequate support to infantry on the ground.

[65] Pakistan's military claimed that the Indian planes dropped their payload in an uninhabited wooded hilltop area near Balakot after being intercepted by PAF fighter jets.

[69][70][71] In April 2023 IAF court martialled Group Captain Sumon Roy Chaudhry, second in command[72] of Srinagar Air Force Station at the time of the PAF strikes for negligence, and he was to be dismissed,[73] however the dismissal was ruled ultra vires by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, who set a date of 12 September 2023 for their hearing[74][needs update] The pilots were posthumously awarded the Vayu Sena gallantry medal.

[84] At least 9 people were killed when Pakistan Air Force conducted retaliatory strikes, codenamed as Operation Marg Bar Sarmachar on seven targets within Iranian Sistan-Balochistan province.

[84] On 25 December 2024, the Pakistan Air Force launched precision airstrikes located across seven villages of Barmal District of Afghanistan Paktika province killing 20-25 terrorists.

Following its involvement in the global U.S.-led War on Terror, Pakistan released the Hindu minority in the country from the discriminatory law and granted them the same freedoms that were already present for their Christian, Sikh and other various counterparts.

Air Commodore Nazir Latif and Group Captain Cecil Chaudhry (both Christians) fought in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 and later helped establish the Combat Commanders School (CCS).

[138] The administration had previously announced on 27 June 2008 that it was proposing to sell ITT Corporation's electronic warfare gear valued at up to $75 million to enhance Pakistan's existing inventory of F-16s.

[157] During talks with a delegation from the French Senate on 28 September 2009, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani stated that the PAF had used most of its stockpile of laser-guided munitions against militants in the Malakand and FATA regions and that replacements for such types of equipment were urgently required.

[172] On 7 July 2017, the Pakistan Air Force announced the development of a fifth-generation fighter aircraft, a medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (MALE UAV) and munitions under the banner of Project Azm (Urdu for resolve/determination).

[180] In 2008, the Turkish Air Force sent five F-16C/D fighters and 50 personnel from 191 Cobras Squadron to Pakistan to take part in the joint Indus Viper exercise at PAF Base Mushaf.

[179] In the summer of 2005, a PAF team of 20 airmen, including pilots, navigators, engineers, maintenance technicians and a C-130E was sent to the United States to take part in the AMC (Air Mobility Command) Rodeo.

[189] On 6 April 2010, the end of the first phase of exercise High Mark 2010 was celebrated with a 90-minute firepower demonstration at the PAF's firing range facility in the deserts of Thal.

The H-2 SOW was also shown to the public for the first time, being launched from around 60 km away before hitting its target, and a mock counter-insurgency operation was performed by participating forces.

9 Griffins Squadron and 100 PAF personnel to Nellis Air Force Base in the U.S. to participate in the international Red Flag exercise for the first time.

[203] Information on which aircraft were used by each side in the exercise remained classified, but photos of Pakistani pilots inspecting what appeared to be Chinese Shenyang J-11B fighters were released on the internet.

Beyond that their own position starts getting undermined because the military is after all is a mirror image of the civil society from which it is drawn.In times of natural disaster such as the chaotic floods of 1992 or the October 2005 earthquake, PAF engineers, medical and logistics personnel alongside the rest of the armed forces played a major role in bringing relief aid and supplies to those who were affected.

[206] In addition to the PAF's involvement in relief activities at home, it has also helped the Pakistani military's responses to natural disasters in many other countries globally.