The Hangor : A Symbol of Pakistan China deep rooted Friendship I
Dr. Syed Mehboob
Senior Business and Political Analyst
http//: www.thenewslark.com
Email:[email protected]
Pakistan and China friendship is deep-rooted, time-tested all weather and historic. Although it has completed 75 years of diplomatic relations on 21st May, 2026, however through ancient silk road we enjoyed excellent relations with old Chine centuries before. Pakistan China friendship coveres multiple areas like economic, social, cultural, political as well as defence.
30th April, 2026 was a historical day when , the first class submarine , PNS Hangor, was officially commissioned by the Pakistan Navy with a ceremony in Sanya, China. Pakistan has commissioned the first of eight advanced Chinese submarines, marking a significant step in strengthening its maritime capabilities and deepening defence cooperation with its all weather and trusted friend CHINA.
A ceremony to commission the attack submarine Hangor was held in the Chinese city of Sanya on April 30 in the presence of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and navy chief Naveed Ashraf as well as senior Chinese military officials. Sanya, a port city, hosts a major submarine base of the People’s Liberation Army. The diesel-electric Hangor-class submarine is an export variant of China’s 039A Yuan-class submarines. It has a displacement of approximately 2,800 tons. Armed with advanced sensors, torpedoes and anti-ship cruise missiles that can strike surface warships, submarines and land-based facilities, these Air-Independent Propulsion (AIP) conventional boats aim to enhance the Pakistan navy’s undersea warfare capability.
The AIP submarines can remain under water significantly longer without needing to surface. The deal for the eight Chinese submarines, struck in 2015, is estimated at $5 billion. Four boats are being built in China and the remaining four will be built in Pakistan under a technology-transfer agreement. All four Chinese-built boats are scheduled to be inducted by 2028.
Pakistani President Zardari described the commissioning of the first Chinese attack submarine as a “historic milestone” in the South Asian country’s naval modernization. Until now, Pakistan operates a fleet of eight submarines including three mini ones.
Pakistan’s navy chief Naveed Ashraf said that the Hangor submarines, equipped with state of the art weapons “will play a pivotal role in deterring aggression and ensuring security of vital sea lines of communication across the Arabian Sea and wider Indian Ocean region.”
China’s defense supplies are playing a key role in Pakistan’s military build-up and modernization, as both countries nurture a close partnership and have deep understandingwith an eye on India, with which both have fought wars triggered by long-standing border disputes.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s global arms transfer database, China supplied approximately 80% of Pakistan’s arms imports between 2021 and 2025. Pakistan also serves as Beijing’s top arms customer, buying as much as 60% of its defense exports.
Chinese weapons also boosting Pakistan’s aerial capabilities — the Chinese J-10C and the JF-17, which is jointly made by China and Pakistan, are the main combat jets in the Pakistan air force. These jets were combat-tested for the first time during a four-day conflict between India and Pakistan last year. Pakistan claimed that it had shot down Indian fighter jets including Rafale aircraft with the J-10. Both India and Dassault Aviation, the French company which manufactures the jets, denied the claim.
The Hangor-class submarines are a class of diesel–electric attack submarines currently being manufactured by a joint-partnership of the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) and the Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works (KSEW) for the Pakistan Navy (PN). Naming after PNS Hangor, a Daphné-class submarine that sank an Indian frigate in the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, the class is an export derivative of the Chinese-origin Type 039A attack submarine, currently operated by the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). First unveiled to the public in 2018, the future submarines are envisaged to undertake anti-access/area denial operations within Pakistan's exclusive economic zone, through the use of heavyweight torpedoes and anti-ship cruising missiles.
Pakistan's Ministry of Defence (MoD) ordered eight submarines from China in 2015, at an approximate cost of USD $4–5 billion, making it the largest arms export contract in China's military history. Of the eight ordered examples, the initial four are being built by CSIC in China, while the latter four are to be built in Pakistan by KSEW, under a technology transfer agreement. Four of the submarines have already been constructed and launched in China, and in an interview with Chinese state media, Pakistan's naval chief, Admiral Naveed Ashraf, said that the first batch of Hangor-class submarines will enter active service with the Pakistan Navy in 2026.
In 2008, the PN approached several naval conglomerates, namely DCNS (now Naval Group) and Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW), with the intention of purchase a series of attack submarines. While DCNS offered its Marlin-class submarine, HDW offered its Type 214 submarine. The same year, Pakistan agreed to purchase three Type 214 submarines at a then-estimated cost of €773.7 million. However, owing to a dearth of public funds due to the 2008 financial crisis and the high cost of the submarines forced Pakistan to terminate the proposed deal.
In 2011, Pakistan initiated negotiations with the China Shipbuilding & Offshore International (CSOC) – the trade arm of the Chinese state-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), for the purchase of six diesel-powered attack submarines equipped with air-independent propulsion systems (AIP). Although no details were ever revealed about the design of the speculated submarines, many observers surmised that the design in question may have been the Type 032 Qing-class submarine, a variant of the Type 039A Yuan-class submarine.
In April 2015, during a briefing to the National Assembly Standing Committee on Defence, PN representatives disclosed that the Pakistani government, then headed by prime minister Nawaz Sharif, had approved the purchase of eight attack submarines from China, at an estimated cost of US$4–5 billion. Although no details regarding the approved submarines were disclosed, officials disclosed that Pakistan had been looking at an export design of the Yuan class, denoted as the S20. In October of the same year, Pakistan's minister of defense production Rana Tanveer Hussain announced that the deal for the eight submarines had been finalized, dislosing that four of the vessels would be built in China and Pakistan, respectively.
One year later, in April 2016, the PN publicly disclosed that the Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works (KSEW) had been selected as the Pakistani shipyard tasked with the production of the four submarines. Six months later, in October 2016, the director of the CSIC confirmed the sale of the submarines to Pakistan during an interview with the Chinese state-run People's Daily Online media outlet. The total cost of the deal, which had then been estimated at a total US$4–5 billion, interpreted an approximate cost of $500 million per submarine, although other sources have argued that the actual price could be lower, at $250–325 million per submarine.
Although no information regarding the design characteristics of the class were ever revealed, it is thought that the submarine's design is likely based on the S26, an export-eccentric design developed by the CSOC that draws on the Type 039A submarine. The S26 in turn is thought to be an AIP-equipped variant of the S20 diesel-electric submarine design unveiled by the China Shipbuilding Trading Corporation (CSSC) in 2013. In addition to the PN, the Royal Thai Navy (RTN) also ordered three examples of the S26 (locally designated as the S26T) in 2017.
According to CSIC, the S26 is a double-hulled design powered by AIP, with an estimated length and beam width of 77.7 m (254 ft 11 in) and 8.6 m (28 ft 3 in) respectively, with an approximate displacement of about 2,550 t (2,510 long tons). The design's teardrop-shaped hull can accommodate a crew complement of 38, plus 8 additional special forces personnel.The entire hull is built from continuously cast 921A and 980 steel (with yield strengths of 590–745 MPa and 785 MPa), while the hull-sections are assembled using modular construction methodology. (CONTINUED) |