China Starts Construction of Pakistan Navy’s First Type 054 Warship

The China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) held a steel cutting ceremony of Pakistan Navy’s second Type 054A/P multi-mission frigate at the Hudong Zhonghua (HZ) Shipyard China.

The Type 054A/P is a part of an order of four such ships. The PN is slated to receive all four ships by 2021, a press release issued here by Directorate of Public Relations of Pakistan Navy said December 20.

Pakistan is the launch customer of the Type 054A frigate. Under the PN’s program, the acquisition is being designated as “F-22P Batch II”, i.e., alluding to a reported plan in 2015 to procure another batch of F-22P frigates which would be improved versions of the Zulfiqar-class in the PN’s fleet, Quwa reported last week.

However, the Type 054A is not related to the Zulfiqar-class/F-22P; the latter is a variant of the Type 053H3.

In parallel, the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) is fulfilling an order of eight new 2,800-ton air-independent propulsion (AIP) submarines for the PN.

Designated as the Hangor-class, the first batch of four is due by 2023, with the remaining four by 2028. The latter four will be built by Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works (KSEW). KSEW is planning to conduct the steel-cutting ceremony of its first ship in October 2020 (Ministry of Defence Production).