By Franz-Stefan Gady
Details on the type of vessel as well as the new fleet’s price tag are still unknown.
The Pakistani government has approved the purchase of eight new submarines from China. “The National Security Committee has approved, in principle, the acquisition of eight Chinese submarines,” Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Defense, Rear Admiral Mukhtar Khan, informed the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Defence in Islamabad.
Details on the type of vessels or their price are murky. IHS Jane’s quotes an unnamed Pakistani Foreign Ministry official who said that, “in the recent past, there have been reports of discussions for the Type 041 submarines.”
According to IHS Jane’s Fighting Ships the Type 041 Yuan-class is a, “as a diesel electric attack submarine (SSK), potentially with Stirling air independent propulsion, that is armed with YJ-2 (YJ-82) anti-ship missiles and a combination of Yu-4 (SAET-50) passive homing and Yu-3 (SET-65E) active/passive homing torpedoes.” The export version of the vessels allegedly displaces about 2,300 tons.
However, as I noted here, the Wuhan-based China State Shipbuilding Industrial Corp (CSIC) allegededly signed a contract in April 2011 to deliver six Type 032 Qing-class conventional attack submarines by 2016/2017. Apparently, this deal fell through.
Read the full story at The Diplomat