In April 2014, the
Pakistan Navy announced that it was in the process of shifting primary operations and naval assets, including its entire fleet of diesel-electric submarines (SSKs), from
Karachi to the Jinnah Naval Base in Ormara, citing Karachi's pollution, congestion from increasing commercial activity, and proximity to
India as reasons for the move. Following
Xi Jinping's visit to Pakistan in 2015, the Pakistani Navy signed a deal with
China Shipbuilding & Offshore International Co. to produce 8
Hangor-II-class submarines (an export variant of the Chinese 039B Yuan-class) for its fleet. Four ships were to be built by
Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group (WSIG) in
Wuhan, China. The other four were to be built by
Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works in Pakistan by means of
technological transfer. German authorities in March 2022 cited an arms embargo imposed on the
PRC in the aftermath of the
1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre in their decision to restrict the export of retrofitted engines to shipbuilding companies producing subs for the
Thai and
Pakistani Navies, though notably not for Chinese domestic manufacturers. In October 2023, Thai officials exited a $402 million deal signed in 2017 with the Chinese to purchase variants of the Yuan-class S26T, citing doubts about the reliability of Chinese variants on the MTU design (though they later agreed to continue). The Thai order was due prior to the Pakistanis', meaning that its cancellation freed up factors of production for the Pakistanis who, in contrast, were willing to retrofit their ships with Chinese CHD 620 diesel engines. The first submarine was launched at Wuchang's
Shuangliu Base on 26 April 2024, with
Admiral Naveed Ashraf of the Pakistan Navy serving as Chief Guest in attendance. A '
very low frequency' (VLF) station in
Sindh Province, commissioned as
PNS Hamid, has been funded by the Pakistani military to facilitate secure submarine communications as well. The commissioning of the first Hangor-class submarine will mark Pakistan's first vessel with an
air-independent propulsion (AIP) system. These acquisitions, as well as others, mark an effort by Pakistan to modernize its forces for the conditions they face in the twenty-first century. == See also ==