Pakistan To Build 4 of 8 Submarines It Plans to Buy from China

Beijing and Islamabad will build eight submarines simultaneously, of which half will be built in China and the other half in Karachi.

China will transfer the submarine technology to Pakistan, Beijing-based Reference News reported Wednesday. A training center will also be established in Karachi for the assembly of the submarines, Hussain Rana Tanveer Hussain, Pakistan's minister of defense production said this week.

Hussian did not reveal the type of submarine that will be built nor when the construction will be launched. Analysts believe, however, that the Type 041 Yuan-class submarine has been selected as the model.

Pakistan has previous experience in building submarines in its shipyard. PNS Hamza, One of the three Agosta 90-B submarines in Navy’s fleet commissioned in 2008, was assembled at the Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works.

The other two Agosta 90-B submarines, PNS Khalid and PNS Saad, were also indigenously overhauled and retrofitted with air-independent propulsion (AIP) systems in 2011 in Pakistan. Pakistan had thought of buying submarines from France and Germany but the deals have not been materialised still.