National
Navy diffusing its strength towards Balochistan coast
Plan to move submarines, destroyers, frigates to Ormara
Tehmina Qureshi
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Karachi: The Pakistan Navy is in the process of diffusing its strength and assets away from Karachi and towards the Balochistan coast.
The force is moving away from Karachi for a number of strategic and practical reasons.Firstly, the movement of navy’s machinery in restricted by heavy commercial activities at the Karachi port. Another factor is the extent of pollution in water surrounding the city’s coast which reduces the metallurgic life of battleships by at least 10 to 15 years.
Moreover, according to navy officials, from now on all the residential schemes for navy officers will be built at the Jinnah Naval Base in Ormara, which was set up in 2000, because there does not seem to be any more space left in Karachi.“There is too much commercial activity around Karachi,” said Commander Coast Rear Admiral Syed Arifullah Hussaini.
“The coast has become saturated with too much commercial activity and restricts the movement of navy ships and machinery. Also, the water is so polluted that it makes our ships and other machinery expire at least 10 to 15 years before time.”
However, elaborating on the subject, Rear Admiral Hussaini also alluded to a strategic reason behind this move. He said it was unwise to saturate all the naval assets in Karachi.For one, it was already near the “enemy’s” reach. Keeping all the assets in and around Karachi, which is the biggest economic hub of the country, would make for an easy target in case of any unfortunate incident. “It makes us vulnerable and a sitting target in case of an attack,” he said.
Keeping this in mind, the force will move all five of its operational submarines to Ormara, along with its 10 destroyer frigates, except the ones guarding defences around Karachi and other areas, other officials in the force told The News.
This is also why the force is strengthening its presence in Ormara and is deploying more officers and sailors there, they said.“We plan to equip the Ormara base as another hub for the naval activities so that we don’t have to rely only on Karachi during peace or war times,” said Admiral Hussaini, adding that Ormara was an ideal place for setting up surveillance radars due to its height which increased their range by at least 50 kilometres. Then the geographical features of the area, especially the rocky hills, acted as natural breakwaters for the base, he said.
However, he pointed out that the establishing a base in Ormara also meant that the Pakistan Navy got the opportunity to develop a whole area in general.Meanwhile, other navy officials told The News that the force was focusing on “asymmetric” warfare and was strengthening defences along the coastline to prevent terrorist or pirate attacks via the sea.
This is also why the force was focusing on training and activities pertaining to rescue and combat via small speed boats and helicopters.(GR Cutters)
“The Pakistan Navy is rigorously participating in anti-piracy activities with other countries and this is why the menace has almost been eradicated from the region between Gulf and Karachi,” said Commander West, Commodore Naghman Chaudhry. “We are also doing exercises with other Nato countries from the coast of Bahrain.” Talking about the Gwadar port, he said it was a natural deep sea port and will be a game changer in the region.
Diffusing assets to Ormara is also being done in the background of providing security to the under-construction port in Balochistan, other navy officials said.“Gwadar is a natural deep sea port and will change the whole economic scenario of the region,” said Commander Chaudhry. “The Pakistan Navy will provide security to the port and it will be easier with the Jinnah Naval Base in Ormara,” he added.
