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In April 2015, Pakistan’s Ministry of Defence Manufacturing (MoDP) accepted the acquisition of eight air-independent propulsion (AIP)-equipped submarines (SSP) from China. Underneath the contract, Pakistan would manufacture 4 of the boats at Karachi Shipyards and Engineering Works (KSEW), whereas the remaining can 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. Nonetheless, the Pakistan Navy (PN) has not but obtained the primary of those boats, confirming a transparent delay in this system, possible on account of a mixture of supplier-side points and financial challenges with China and Pakistan, respectively.
However, 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 in search of an unspecified variety of shallow-water assault submarines (SWATS), doubtlessly 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. Nonetheless, 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 by way of 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 instead of the MTU techniques, therefore inflicting a delay in this system. Nonetheless, it’s unclear if the whole thing 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 recognized 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 situation is believable. For instance, the PN might discover that going all-in with a ‘inventory’ Chinese language configuration is less complicated to combine, less expensive to purchase, and fewer susceptible to additional delays. Alternatively, designing a subsystem construct just like the Agosta 90B may permit for better standardization throughout the submarine fleet, which may streamline coaching.
Nonetheless, it ought to be famous that the PN is localizing subsystems for each its floor and sub-surface techniques. In line with World 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 count on the PN to configure these techniques to the Hangor-class and, doubtlessly, the brand new shallow-water assault submarine (SWATS)…
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Potential Deployment Plans
In some methods, the PN’s resolution to amass 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; actually, it will be the biggest submarine the PN can have operated up up to now (the Agosta 90B or Khalid-class has a displacement of two,083 tons when submerged). If the PN was solely centered on coastal or shallow-water anti-area and entry denial (A2/AD), then the Hangor-class submarine may have quite a few drawbacks on account of its dimension.
Therefore, one can conclude that the PN didn’t purchase the Hangor for shallow-water A2/AD, however open-ocean operations. In truth, analysts, corresponding 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 better vary/endurance and, probably, payload capability.
On this sense, the PN could possibly 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 on account of supply in 2023, however as they haven’t arrived, this system is evidently present process delays. Nonetheless, 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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