Pakistan Navy Frigates?????

RE: Pakistan Navy Frigates?????

Tomel
Yes, Pakistan is a poor country, we need to spend our resources very wisely, especially looking at the huge arms aqusitions by some of our neighbours.
I belive the PN is adopting a wise policy, the Chinese boats and our 6 upgraded type 21 frigates from the UK should have similar wepons fit.

C-803 air defence missile
Harpoon/Exocet ant-ship
Swedish electronic combat system

At the momment we only have 3 Lynxes and 6 Aloutte III choppers to operate from these ships (the 6 Sea Kings being shore based)
This should be rectified soon as PN is negotiating for more second hand Lynxes from the UK.

RE: Pakistan Navy Frigates?????

Thanks Pakistani,
At least your country leader knows what is really important during the hard times.Buying weapons w/o considering the economic development priority would be follish i guess.
It is interesting to note that they mentioned about fixing Exocet,Harpoon etc on the same vessels-are your country intend to diversified the types weapons on board a single class or they still haven’t make up their mind on the weapons systems?Jiangwei II frigates-is the same as the royal Thai Navy Nareasuan class FFG?

RE: Pakistan Navy Frigates?????

Tomel

According to this article the PN plan to place their own European systems and US weapons on these ships.

Pakistan not keen to enter arms race with India: Admiral Mirza

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Admiral Abdul Aziz Mirza, Pakistani Chief of Naval Staff said here this week that Pakistan is seeking to strengthen its capabilities without entering into an arms race with India. In an interview, he told Jane’s that while the Indian Navy has been growing rapidly, “there is no desire on our part to match them ship-for-ship because that is not required.” Rather, he explained, Pakistan’s “strategy is to have some deterrence in certain areas – selective deterrence because of our resources and because of our advantages. Our aim is totally defensive.” That deterrence, he added,was based on the understanding that Pakistan would cause an unacceptably high level of casualties to attacking foes.

The Admiral who paid a short visit in response to an official invitation, said, “Ours is a small, modest navy,” with a current year budget of about $400 million and comprising three main components – aviation, surface and sub-surface. “At the moment, the sub-surface and aviation portions are very well balanced. What we require is the induction of more surface ships,” he pointed out. He said the Pakistan Navy’s top procurement priority is to buy new Jiangwei II-class frigates from China and modify them for Pakistan, adding that the Ministry of Defence and the Defence Committee had decided in 1995 to buy four of the ships, known domestically as the F-22P.

However, but “because of our economic situation, the decision was suspended and purchase delayed. Now we are again actively considering them and negotiations are ongoing.” He said “hopefully”, we can have the contract finalised in this fiscal year. Once the contract was signed, it would be three to four years before the first ship is delivered. While the first one is due to be built in China, the subsequent three would be built at Pakistan’s Naval Dockyard in Karachi. “After these four ships are completed, which will be in about seven years, I am hoping to keep the programme open because we will need more ships. Once we have this capability in the country we should take advantage of it and the programme should continue because even getting these four ships over the next few years is not going to meet our government-approved force levels”, Admiral Aziz said.

He explained that “the basic hull and the main machinery are the same [as China’s Jiangwei II-class frigates] but the command-and-control systems, the weapons and the sensors will be specially modified to our needs.” He added that the ships would be equipped with Pakistan’s existing inventory of naval weapons – French Exocet, Chinese C-802, and US-supplied Harpoon anti-ship missiles – but “if some better system becomes available, that is something we would have to consider.” The Pakistan Navy chief pointed out that force levels would drop in coming years since it “is becoming difficult to keep Pakistan’s two Leander-class frigates operational. The F-22Ps would replace them. “We decided to retire the first and through cannibalisation of it try to maintain the other ship and use that for training,” he added.

Pakistan plans to finish the Khalid-class (Agosta-90B) diesel-electric submarine programme after the third boat is completed, according to the Admiral. He noted that “if the third submarine is completed by the end of 2004-05 and the economy picks up by then, we will [seek] government [approval] to continue the programme. This is because our oldest submarines, the Daphne class, will be more than 35 years old, and we should be thinking of replacing them. It would be desirable after having invested so much in training the manpower and getting technology transfer that we continue the programme.”

He added that“our priority is surface ships and in four to five years, once the surface-ship programme has progressed to some degree, we will be in a position to talk about building additional Submarines.” Admiral Mirza denied any activity on citing nuclear weapons on sea, as reported. “All I said was that any country that has developed a nuclear capability has to then think of the delivery system. … It is obvious that anyone who has that capability will consider a sea-based system” along with land-based and aircraft-launched nuclear weapons that form the traditional nuclear triad. “It’s logical” to at least consider sea-basing those weapons, he said.

The Naval chief said that another major project under way is a new military harbour and port at Gwadar, about 240km west of Karachi. Noting that “the aim is to make that the primary naval base,” he stressed that the new port “is very important for many reasons. One is that Karachi is also a large commercial harbour and is becoming highly congested.” At Gwadar, he added, while “the harbour part is ready and we are operating ships from there, the infrastructure ashore is not yet complete (and) will take considerable time” to finish.

The facility “will be able to operate both surface ships and submarines for longer-range patrols … One of the primary missions [of the new base] is allowing the escort of ships from the Persian Gulf, as well as acting as a Western support base.” Jane’s quoted Admiral Mirza as saying that he is rebuilding the mutual military relationship with the USA, but it would also take time. He noted that while Pakistan “is providing support to Operation ‘Enduring Freedom’ and allowing use of our facilities, so far export permissions granted to US defence companies have not been issued …We have been assured that changes will be coming soon.” He said “the revival of this relationship in certain areas like military training has already started,” adding that Pakistan and the USA were exploring joint exercises “to start with at the low level and perhaps after that some port visits and possibly Foreign Military Sales.”

The Admiral told the publication that Pakistan would be cautious about entering into major weapons deals with the USA because “we have this experience of sanctions from the 1990s and it’s always in the back of our minds. So, unless we had insurance of life-cycle support we won’t accept any equipment.”