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Type 214

With the introduction of three new submarines, the Navy retired the four older Daphne class subs in January 2006, which left a capability gap. The Navy began looking to select a new and a more up to date platform with the hope to construct the new subs indigenously. Pakistan's Navy has requirements for a further six submarines and there was an open tender for thise. The French firm Armaris, a subsidiary of France's Thales group, lobbied for the sale of three Marlin type submarines, the latest version of the three Agosta 90-B boats, the last of which the company handed over to Pakistan in 2006.

In February 2008 Germany declared that it may approve the sale of Type 214 submarines to Pakistan despite calls to pull out of the potential USD1.5 billion deal from the German political opposition. However, the German government said that an agreement with Pakistan - should the platform be selected by Islamabad for its next-generation submarine requirement - would be based on "political principles". Any export of the ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems Type 214 would be examined by an inter-ministerial group.

On 26 November 2008 it was reported that Pakistan had decided to buy three Type 214 German submarines under a more than 1 billion dollar deal that the two countries were expected to sign within a few months. Pakistan had traditionally relied on French submarines for its Naval defence and it is first time that the South Asian country had opted for German boats. The decision to acquire Type 214 over the French submarine was made not only because the submarine was more advanced than the French Marlin, but also because many countries had deployed the Type 214 submarines, so there would be no issue of spares.

The German shipbuilding company Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft GmbH (HDW) was to construct the diesel-electric submarines in a shipyard in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi. "The commercial contract has been finalised up to 95 per cent," Walter Freitag, the chief executive officer of the HDW, the largest conventional submarine maker in the world told Pakistan's English-language daily The News, hoping that the final agreement will be signed soon. Freitag said that the first submarine would be delivered to Pakistan Navy in 64 months once the contract is signed. "The rest would be completed in the next 12 months," he added. If the contract were finalized in 2009, that would imply delivery of the first unit in 2014, with the other two following in 2015 and 2016.

On February 2, 2009 Indo Asian News Service (IANS) reported that Pakistan Navy confirmed their intention to acquire drones, spy planes and submarines. Admiral Noman Bashir said a contract would soon be signed for the German-designed HDW Type-214 submarines to enhance the navy's 'subsurface defense capabilities'.