We need to Work on our economy for at least a decade.
In the meantime, we going with the Turks for a joint program for 4 subs each with VLS (the minimum to maintain at least one out on patrol at all times). Turkey gets out of work sub engineers from the Russkies and Pakistan seeks help from China. (Remember if Pakistan buys SSNs from China, if they were willing to sell it direct, it shift the relationship from Threshold alliance to full blown alliance in the eyes of the US, so Pakistan has to avoid that).
We need a small but modern SSN akin to the barracuda of the French navy. The Long term goal of both Pakistan and Turkey, if they can build up their economies to allow it, is strategic autonomy, like France. Turkey is further along in this goal, and would probably love to have Pakistan be a customer for most of the parts in the initial phase of such a project.
For Pakistan, the navy protecting the SLOC between Djibouti and the Makran coast allows it to promote the utility of its ports. So an SSN is an investment, but only after Pakistan gets the fundamentals of its economy above water.
If we don’t care blowback of buying Chinese SSNs, then we should just buy 4 Type 093G SSNs. The Huludao shipyard can build over a dozen subs at a time. Building 4 new subs or selling off their current Type 093G will be easily replaced in a few years.
The G model has the VLS tubes, which hopefully can be fitted with the 1500 Km YJ-21 hypersonic missiles; providing survivable second strike capability against 12 targets.
It’s pump jet is one feature that makes it a modern sub that can serve for decades to come.
If the PN actually went full out and acquired 3 Type 093B attack boats and 3 Type 093B SSGN, it could keep one of each out at a time, and bog down the IN in ASW operations throughout the Indian Ocean, while the Hangor and Agosta Class boats maintain the pressure closer to home in the Arabian Sea.
Although the new Liaoni
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Btw, if Pakistan buys the Type 093B/G; it could be part of a “rent seeking strategic deal” for Pakistan to protect the SLOC between Makran and Djibouti/GCC for China (and Russia). But that would defacto require the threshold alliance it to a full strategic alliance with China if Pakistan is to fully benefit, because it would really be putting all its eggs in the Chinese basket. Pakistan shouldn’t sell itself short if it decides to go down that route. Pakistan needs economic investment and an export market if it to compensate for all it could lose elsewhere.
French Barracuda SSN is approx. 5300 tons and the Type 093B/G is approx. 7000 tons. The noise level of the Type 093B/G is in the league of the improved akulas, equal to what India operates. Considering China is building Type 095, possibly equal to USN Virginia class boats, the Type 093B is already dated technology for China, and probably ok to be cleared for export for China, akin to the AUKUS deal for Australia.
Geopolitical shifts in South Asia over the past decade, driven by sharper US-China competition, a precipitous decline in China-India relations, and the 2021 withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, have pushed the Chinese and Pakistani militaries closer together. The countries’ armies and...
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