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In April 2015, Pakistan’s Ministry of Defence Manufacturing (MoDP) accredited the acquisition of eight air-independent propulsion (AIP)-equipped submarines (SSP) from China. Below the contract, Pakistan would manufacture 4 of the boats at Karachi Shipyards and Engineering Works (KSEW), whereas the remaining will probably be produced by China Shipbuilding Trade Company (CSIC).
Christened because the Hangor program (in honour of the unique Hangor-class diesel electrical submarine in service from 1967 to 2006), the primary 4 boats had been to be delivered by 2023, with the final 4 (from KSEW) due by 2028. Nevertheless, the Pakistan Navy (PN) has not but acquired the primary of those boats, confirming a transparent delay in this system, possible because of a mixture of supplier-side points and financial challenges with China and Pakistan, respectively.
Nonetheless, the Hangor program is progressing and primarily based on present projections, will issue into the PN’s fleet by the late 2020s and early 2030s. Upon completion, this system will increase the PN’s sub-surface fleet to 11 AIP-equipped boats, becoming a member of the PN’s three upgraded Khalid-class (i.e., Agosta 90B) submarines. The PN can be looking for an unspecified variety of shallow-water assault submarines (SWATS), probably giving Pakistan one of many largest sub-surface fleets in Asia.
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Hangor Submarine Design and Capabilities
The Hangor submarine is a variant of the China Shipbuilding & Offshore Worldwide Co. Ltd (CSOC) S26, a design primarily based on the Yuan-class submarine, however developed for the export market. Nevertheless, compared to the standard-grade S26, the Hangor carried a number of design adjustments, notably a heavier displacement (2,800 tons to the S26’s 2,550 tons) and barely shorter hull (76 m to the S26’s 77.7 m). In any other case, the Hangor was largely the identical because the S26, particularly when it comes to its payload capability of six torpedo tubes and Stirling-based AIP system.
Initially, the S26-series was apparently marketed with the German MTU 12V 396 SE84 diesel engine, however the German authorities withheld export licenses for the powerplant. Consequently, the PN needed to pivot and procure the Chinese language CHD-620 diesel engine rather than the MTU techniques, therefore inflicting a delay in this system. Nevertheless, it’s unclear if the whole lot of the delays had been because of the engine swap or, as plausibly, if Pakistan’s ongoing fiscal difficulties are additionally contributing to the friction.
It isn’t identified if the Hangor submarine is utilizing Chinese language or – just like the PN’s upgraded Agosta 90Bs – a mixture of home, Turkish, and Western subsystems. Both state of affairs is believable. For instance, the PN might discover that going all-in with a ‘inventory’ Chinese language configuration is simpler to combine, less expensive to purchase, and fewer vulnerable to additional delays. Alternatively, designing a subsystem construct much like the Agosta 90B might enable for higher standardization throughout the submarine fleet, which may streamline coaching.
Nevertheless, it must be famous that the PN is localizing subsystems for each its floor and sub-surface techniques. In response to International Industrial and Defence Options’ (GIDS) product roadmap, Pakistan is growing an automatic deployment and retrieval system (ADRS) and digital help measures (ESM) system for submarines. Thus, one can anticipate the PN to configure these techniques to the Hangor-class and, probably, the brand new shallow-water assault submarine (SWATS)…
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Potential Deployment Plans
In some methods, the PN’s choice to accumulate the Hangor was intriguing, not as a result of it bought the boats from China, however the particular design itself. Being a spinoff of the Kind 039A/B Yuan-class, the Hangor/S26 is a big submarine; in truth, it might be the biggest submarine the PN can have operated up thus far (the Agosta 90B or Khalid-class has a displacement of two,083 tons when submerged). If the PN was solely targeted on coastal or shallow-water anti-area and entry denial (A2/AD), then the Hangor-class submarine might have quite a few drawbacks because of its measurement.
Therefore, one can conclude that the PN didn’t purchase the Hangor for shallow-water A2/AD, however open-ocean operations. The truth is, analysts, similar to these from the U.S. Naval Institute (USNI), assessed that the Kind 039A/B was “an open-ocean submarine designed to satisfy the wants of the PLAN’s [People’s Liberation Army Navy] near-seas lively protection facet of their maritime technique, and never primarily a ship to function in Taiwan’s coastal waters.” Thus, the bigger submarine design possible interprets into higher vary/endurance and, presumably, payload capability.
On this sense, the PN may very well be planning to make use of the Hangors to primarily patrol its sea lanes/sea-lines-of-communication (SLOC)….
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Supply Standing
The primary 4 Hangor boats had been because of supply in 2023, however as they haven’t arrived, this system is evidently present process delays. Nevertheless, with KSEW now manufacturing two of its 4 assigned boats, the Hangor program is progressing, albeit at a slower tempo. KSEW lower the metal for its first boat (i.e., the fifth submarine) in 2021 and the second boat (i.e., sixth submarine) in 2022…
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