ASIA PACIFIC
Date Posted: 17-Dec-2010
Jane's Defence Weekly
China to sell Pakistan missile boats
Farhan Bokhari JDW Correspondent -Islamabad
China has signed a contract with the Pakistan Navy (PN) to provide it with two missile boats, according to a senior PN officer, in the latest evidence of Beijing's growing role in providing hardware to the navy.
"We have recently signed a contract with China for the supply of two missile boats of 500 tonnes each," Rear Admiral Shafqat Javed, the PN's deputy chief of staff, said in a television interview on 13 December. "One of these boats will be manufactured in China while the other will be made in Pakistan."
Adm Javed added that the boats would be equipped "with radar-controlled guns", without elaborating. A senior PN officer told Jane's the contract is evidence of "growing links" between the PN and China.
China has an ongoing contract for the supply of four new F-22P frigates.
Pakistani government officials have said the country may also opt to buy Chinese-built naval vessels in excess of 4,000 tonnes. Though the financial terms of defence contracts between the two countries are not published, Jane's understands that the four frigates - along with a squadron of helicopters - will cost USD700 million.
Earlier this year a senior Pakistani government official said the PN had begun mulling the purchase of submarines from China after concluding that purchases from a Western source, notably Germany, would cost too much.
In the late 1990s Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works (KS&EW) built the Jalalat and Shujaat with Chinese assistance, while in February 2006 the PN commissioned two new fast attack craft, constructed locally by KS&EW with technical support from Marsun shipyard in Thailand based on a modified German design.