An overview of Pakistan’s naval prowess

LAHORE: In what could be branded as an impressive firepower display over the waves of the North Arabian Sea on January 12 this year, the Pakistan Navy Fleet comprising its submarines, had also successfully engaged its intended targets with anti-ship missiles and torpedoes.

And then recently, the naval warfare branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces, kicked off a five-day multinational exercise in the Arabian Sea, with 45 nations participating in the event that has surely caught the eyes of all the international military powers to reckon with.

Renowned American news agency, the “Associated Press” writes: “Pakistan has been hosting the exercise since 2007 but has never invited neighboring India, and bitter relations remain after three wars fought between the two since independence from British rule in 1947. The exercise began days after Turkish troops arrived in Pakistan for a separate joint military exercise on land, in addition to sending a contingent to the naval drills.”

Currently headed by Admiral Amjad Khan Niazi, the combat-ready Pakistan Navy -- operating with a budget of Rs140 billion -- has travelled a long way in acquiring top quality manpower, professional weaponry and logistic excellence since 1947, when it had received dismal assets, including just two sloops (warships), two frigates (another kind of warships having various sizes and roles over time), four minesweepers (used to detect and remove naval mines before arrival of the rest of the fleet), two naval trawlers (sea vessels built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes during World War I and II), and four harbour launches (wooden war boats once used to ferry officers and crew around the Navy dockyards) from the Royal Indian Navy.

According to a noted Indian defence analyst and author, Colonel (retired) Udaya Chandar’s 2018 book “Independent India's all the seven wars” and military historian Geoffrey Till's book “Sea power: A guide for the Twenty-first Century,” the Armed Forces Reconstitution Committee under the British Field Marshall, Sir Claude Auchinleck, had divided the shares and assets of the Royal Indian Navy between India and Pakistan with a ratio of 2:1.

The "Global Firepower Index 2021," prepared by an international think tank, which incorporates values related to manpower, equipment, natural resources, finances, and geography of 139 modern military powers, has estimated that India has 285 warship types, including aircraft carriers, submarines, helicopter carriers, corvettes, frigates, coastal types, amphibious assault/support vessels, and auxiliaries, while Pakistan possesses exactly 100 of these.

It is imperative to note that according to the "Global Firepower Index 2021," which provides a unique analytical display of data based on each nation's potential war-making capability across land, sea, and air fought by conventional means, Pakistan has jumped five places this year to become the 10th most powerful country on earth. Last year Pakistan was at 15th place. In jumping these five places, Pakistan’s military power overtook the countries of Germany, Iran, Egypt, Italy and Turkey.

Meanwhile, in February 2019, the “Al-Jazeera” Television had reported: “India’s navy consists of one aircraft carrier, 16 submarines, 14 destroyers, 13 frigates, 106 patrol and coastal combatant vessels and 75 combat-capable aircraft. It has 67,700 personnel, including marines and naval aviation staff. Pakistan, which has a significantly smaller coastline, has nine frigates, eight submarines, 17 patrol and coastal vessels and eight combat-capable aircraft.”

Independent sources claim Pakistan Navy today comprises a submarine fleet having conventional-powered attack submarines like Agosta 90-B, Agosta 70 Class and Hangor Class, the Midget submarines constitute the Cosmos Class submarines, the Surface Fleet is equipped with frigates like the Zulfiqar-class, the Oliver Hazard Perry class (a class of guided-missile frigates), the Type 054A frigates and Jinnah Class (Multi-Role guided missile and Air defence ships), the Tariq- Class destroyer (guided missile destroyer warships), half a dozen Corvettes, numerous Fast attack craft missiles, patrol crafts (naval vessels designed for coastal defence, border protection, immigration law-enforcement, search and rescue duties), and over three dozen high speed boats.

Moreover, the Pakistan Navy’s Auxiliary Fleet enjoys services of innumerable replenishment ships, research and survey vessels, mine countermeasure vessels, support ships and training vessels, etc. It goes without saying that the aircraft in the Pakistan Navy provide logistical support to the multi-dimensional force’s readiness at all level of commands, besides serving as the supply platform, through helicopters, to conduct the search and rescue, special operations, anti-submarine warfare and the anti-surface warfare.