[ad_1]
On 21 February, Damen Shipyards launched the fourth Yarmouk-class offshore patron vessel (OPV) for the Pakistan Navy (PN) from its services in Galati, Romania.
Although the fourth Damen OPV ordered by the PN, this ship – i.e., PNS Yamama (274) – is the second of the ‘Batch-II’ variant, which is bigger and extra succesful than the primary pair of Yarmouk-class OPVs. The primary Batch-II OPV, PNS Hunain, was launched for sea trials in September 2023.
The PN initiated its OPV program in 2017 by way of an order for 2 Damen OPV 1900s plus an possibility for 2 further ships from the Netherlands. The PN inducted the primary two ships – i.e., PNS Yarmouk and PNS Tabuk – in February 2020 and Might 2020, respectively.
Primarily based on Damen’s OPV 1900 design, the primary two ships have a displacement of two,300 tons every. The Yarmouk-class has a size of 90 m, prime velocity of 23 knots, endurance of 40 days, and crew of over 60 personnel. The PN acquired ships to assist a variety of missions, together with maritime safety and policing, surveillance and intelligence, and search-and-rescue, amongst others.
The Yarmouk-class OPVs will probably be the PN’s most important asset for policing Pakistan’s unique financial zone (EEZ). Principally, it would assist the PN’s anti-smuggling/piracy, counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism, fishery management, and humanitarian and disaster-relief operations. This may free the PN’s frigate and corvette belongings to give attention to their core missions and, doubtlessly, scale back the chance of injury in peacetime ensuing from asymmetrical maritime missions.
That stated, the PN does intend to leverage the Yarmouk-class OPVs in wartime. The primary two Yarmouk-class OPVs may be configured with anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM) and close-in-weapons-systems (CIWS), giving it long-range strike and point-defence anti-air capabilities. The Damen OPV 1900 can even carry two particular mission containers, which the PN might use for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) or mine countermeasures (MCM), thus making these OPVs versatile when required.
With a displacement of two,600 tons, the Batch-II OPV is bigger than the previous two ships and extra succesful in its anti-ship warfare (AShW) and anti-air warfare (AAW) potential. Primarily based on the illustration of the ship launched by Damen, the Batch-II can carry a supersonic-cruising ASCM (probably the CM-302) in a two-by-two configuration in addition to vertical launch system (VLS) cells for a medium-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, probably the MBDA CAMM-ER…
Finish of Excerpt (371/737 phrases)
You’ll be able to learn the entire article by logging in (click on right here) or subscribing to Quwa Premium (click on right here).
For Extra Pakistan Navy Information and Evaluation, See:
[ad_2]
Source link
