Division of the Royal Indian Navy in 1947 's
rating sailors breaching the
Gates of Delhi during the
rebellion against the British rule in India in 1857 The Pakistan Navy came into existence on 15 August 1947 with the
establishment of Pakistan as an independent state from the
United Kingdom. The Armed Forces Reconstitution Committee (AFRC), under
Field Marshal Auchinleck, the last British
Commander-in-Chief, India (C-in-C, India), divided the shares and assets of the
Royal Indian Navy (RIN) between India and Pakistan in a ratio of 2:1, despite Pakistan having inherited the high percentage of
delta areas on its coast and the large maritime area covering the
Arabian Sea on the West and the
Bay of Bengal on the East. Pakistan received two
sloops, two
frigates, four minesweepers, two
naval trawlers and four harbour launches. Only six officers were
mechanical engineers. There were no
electrical engineers or specialists to care for the electrical systems used for weapons or other machinery.
The beginning: 1947–1964 Reorganisation (1947–1964) visiting
Australia in 1951. The
frigate was transferred to Pakistan by the
Royal Indian Navy in 1947 as a training ship. The Navy's combat actions largely remained in absence during the
first war with
India in 1947–48 as all the fighting was restricted to
land and
aerial combat missions. In 1948, the Royal Pakistan Navy had to engage in humanitarian missions to evacuate
Indian immigrants trapped in disputed and hostile areas, with its frigates operating continuously.
Tippu Sultan was
commissioned on 30 September 1949, under Commander P.S. Evans, whilst
Tariq was placed under the command of
Lieutenant-Commander A. R. Khan. In the mid-1950s, the
Ministry of Finance awarded contracts to the
Corps of Engineers (Pakistan Army) for the construction of the
Karachi Naval Dockyard. With the promulgation of the
Constitution of Pakistan that established the
republicanism featuring the
federalised government, the prefix
Royal was dropped, and the service was re-designated the Pakistan Navy ("
PN") with the
Jack replaced the
Queen's colour and the
White Ensign respectively in 1956. In February 1956, the British government announced the transfer of several major surface combat warships to Pakistan Navy, including a cruiser and four destroyers to be purchased with funds made available under the U.S.
Military Assistance Program. From 1956 to 1963, two destroyers, eight coastal minesweepers, and an
oiler were procured from the United States and United Kingdom as a direct result of Pakistan's participation in the anti-Communist defence pacts
SEATO and
CENTO. The
naval chief Admiral
Afzal Rahman Khan ordered all war units of the Pakistan Navy to take up defensive positions off the coast, but did not order any offensive operations in the
Bay of Bengal. On the night of 7/8 September, a naval squadron comprising four destroyers, one frigate, one cruiser, and one submarine, under the command of Commodore
S. M. Anwar, launched
artillery operation— an attack on the radar facilities used by the Indian Air Force in the small coastal town of
Dwarka. In 1966–70, Pakistan Navy had been well aware of massive
procurement and acquisitions of
weapon systems being acquired from the
Soviet Union and
United Kingdom, and the danger it will posed to Pakistan. Difficulties arose between and after the arms embargo was lifted by the United States which lifted based strictly on
cash-and-carry basis. Furthermore, the defections from Navy's Bengali officers and sailors had jeopardise the Navy's operational scope who went onto join the
Awami League's militant wing, the
Mukti Bahini in a program known as
Jackpot. Two of the warships, and , were sunk, while was damaged beyond repair. The
Pakistan Air Force now covering for Karachi made several of the unsuccessful attempts to engage the Indian Navy's missile boat squadron by carrying out the aerial bombing missions over the
Okha Harbor– the forward base of the Indian Navy's missile boat squadron. incident during the
Indo-Pakistani Naval War of 1971 when the senior naval observers misidentified their own ship as a
smaller missile boat, giving clearance to the
Pakistan Air Force to mount a missile attack. The Navy's only long range submarine,
Ghazi, was deployed to the area but, according to neutral sources, it sank en route under mysterious circumstances. Pakistani authorities state that it sank either due to internal explosion or detonation of mines which it was laying at the time. The Indian Navy claims to have sunk the submarine. The submarine's destruction enabled the Indian Navy to enforce a blockade on then East Pakistan. According to the defence magazine,
Pakistan Defence Journal, the attack on Karachi, Dhaka, Chittagong and the loss of
Ghazi, the Navy no longer was able to match the threat of Indian Navy as it was already outclassed by the Indian Navy after the 1965 war. and ten smaller vessels were captured. Around 1,900 personnel were lost, while 1413 servicemen (mostly officers) were captured by Indian forces in
Dhaka. The Indian Navy lost 18 officers and 176 sailors and a frigate, while another frigate was damaged and a
Breguet Alizé naval aircraft was shot down by the
Pakistan Air Force. Despite the limited resources and manpower, the Navy performed its task diligently by providing support to inter-services (air force and army) until the end. According to the testimony provided by the
Admiral Mohammad Shariff in 2015, the primary reason for this loss has been attributed to the High Command's failure in defining a role for the Navy, or even considering Navy as military in general. Unlike the army or the air force, the naval officers were able to continue their military service with the Navy, and their promotions were relatively quicker than other military branches in 1972–74. After concluding a quick visit in the
United States in 1972, President
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto used his administrative powers to
dishonourably discharge the
commission of five senior admirals in the Navy, appointing the junior most
Hasan Hafeez Ahmed as the first
Chief of Naval Staff of the Navy. In 1973, the
Navy NHQ was permanently moved to
Islamabad to provide synergy with the
Army GHQ in Rawalpindi. In 1974, the
Naval Aviation branch was established with the transfer of the
Westland Sea King helicopters from the
United Kingdom in 1975, followed by test firing the
surface-to-ship Exocet missile as a
befitting response to the Indian Navy in 1979. With the ability to fire the land-based Exocet missile from a reconnaissance aircraft, the Navy became the first of its kind in the
South Asia to acquire land-based ballistics missile capable long range reconnaissance aircraft. In 1976, the Navy moved towards successfully acquiring the military computers from the British firm, the
Ferranti, to increase its defence's for its coastlines. In 1977, the United States reportedly transferred the two
refitted to the Pakistan Navy, which were much superior to the British frigates, followed by obtaining more destroyers from the U.S. Navy in 1982–83. In 1979, the France offered to sell their
Agosta-70A-class submarine and was immediately acquired which were commissioned as and . Induction of the
Agosta-70A class gave Pakistan Navy a
depth advantage over the Indian Navy, and gave the Navy an ability to conduct operations in deeper
Indian Ocean at wider range. In 1982, the
Reagan administration submitted the proposal of
US$3.2 billion aid for Pakistan that was aimed towards economic uplift and security assistance to the
United States Congress as the Navy entered in successful negotiation of obtaining the
Harpoon system, despite the strong Indian lobby opposing and objecting of this deal. After the Russian
troops withdrawal from
Afghanistan in 1989, the
Bush administration imposed the
arms embargo on Pakistan by uncovering the existence of the covert
atomic bomb program to the United States Congress, which ultimately refrained the transfer of the maritime patrol aircraft, missile systems, and defence software on 1 October 1990. Despite embargo, the United States Navy maintained its relations with Pakistan Navy, inviting the Pakistanis to participate in the
Inspired Siren in 1994, and gave the Pakistan Navy instructions and run down on the nuclear submarine and aircraft carrier operations. By 1996, the Brown amendment was introduced that allowed the uplifting of the embargo on Pakistan, allowing the transfer of the maritime patrol aircraft to the Navy. Pakistan Navy was forced to deploy its existing war assets when the Indian Navy deployed its warships near
Korangi Creek Cantonment and
Port of Karachi with their codename:
Operation Talwar. On 29 August 1999, another aircraft of the Navy,
P3C Orion, was lost due to an accident with the loss of twenty one lives. Over the issue of the Indian Air Force's shot down of the aircraft, the Navy filed a lawsuit against the Indian Air Force at the
International Court of Justice, but the claim was later dismissed due to over-reaching of the court's mandate. After his incident in 1999, another proposal was raised to switched the
air-independent propulsion of Agosta submarine to substitute with
nuclear propulsion, however the proposal was dismissed.
War on terror in Afghanistan and operations in North-West (2001–present) s, participating in
Exercise Inspired Siren in the
Indian Ocean in 2002. After the
9/11 terrorist attacks in the
United States, the sanctions on Pakistan were eventually uplifted, allowing the Navy to procure the U.S.-built weapon systems and warships to regain its ability to operate in the Indian Ocean as it became involved in war preparations during the
standoff with India in 2001–02. In 2002–03, the Pakistan Navy deployment took place in the Indian Ocean, participating in the naval drills to combat terrorism from seaborne platforms, and eventually entered in defence negotiations with China for acquiring the technology to designing and building the guided missile frigates— the
F-22P guided missile frigates were eventually built it in 2006–15. In 2008, the task force group consisting of , , , and the Pakistan Air Force's Explosive Ordnance Disposal participated in the
Exercise Inspired Union with the U.S. Navy in the Indian Ocean to develop skills in a prevention of seaborne terrorism. Its deployment in the
war on terror also included their actions in the
War in Afghanistan when the Navy's special forces were deployed to take participation in the Operations:
Black Thunderstorm,
Rah-i-Nijat,
Mehran, and the
Help. From 2010 to 2011, the Navy was in a brief direct conflict with the violent
TTP group and
al-Qaeda, and its Naval Intelligence was able to track down the infiltrated militants within the ranks of the Navy. In 2015, the Navy was deployed in support of the
Saudi-led blockade of Yemen after accepting the request from the
Saudi Arabia. As of current, the Navy continues increase its operational scope in the Indian Ocean and reportedly successfully entering in defence talks with Turkey to jointly built the
MILGEM project in Pakistan in 2018–2019 while it had earlier announced to start the building the program of the
nuclear submarine for its current operational capabilities in 2013. ==Organization, Naval Headquarters==