PNS Tughril F22P Batch II - Type 054A frigates

These warships will be one of the largest and technologically advanced platform of PN which will strengthen Pakistan's capability to respond to future challenges, maintain peace & stability and balance of power in Indian Ocean Region.

The Pakistani Navy is purchasing the Chinese Type 054A frigate to replace its purchase of six Type 21 frigates from the United Kingdom, which are too old and need to be replaced. At the IDEAS-2018, Chinese related units exhibited the 054A export-type frigate model. Once in service, the ship will effectively improve the Pakistan Navy's combat capability. From the relevant models, the 054A frigate's export-oriented main system and ship-borne weapons are upgraded, and the overall performance is more advanced than the Chinese Navy's own-use type. It can be seen that China attaches importance to this project.

The 054A export frigate is basically the same as the 054A frigate, including the 76mm gun and the straight-9EC anti-submarine helicopter. These weapons are also installed on the Pakistan Navy F22P frigate. Therefore, the 054A export frigate is equipped with these weapons to facilitate the ship. The early formation of operational capabilities can also save costs and costs in logistics support, which is invaluable to Pakistan, which has limited economic strength.

On the whole, the 054A frigate exported to the Pakistan Navy has adopted the latest domestic technological achievements, and its overall combat capability has been greatly improved compared with the existing 054A frigate, effectively enhancing the Pakistan Navy's combat capability. The Chinese Navy 054A frigate will be in the middle of the future. These equipment and weapons should also be replaced during the overhaul.

On 01 June 2018, the Pakistani Navy agreed to purchase two 054A frigates from the China Shipbuilding Industry Trading Company (CSTC). With the signing of the contract, by 2021, the Pakistan Navy will have four 054A ships. These ships will greatly enhance the operational capabilities of the Pakistan Navy, and this will also contribute to regional maritime security. The ceremony was attended by senior officials and politicians from the Chinese and Pakistani navies and government departments.

On 17 April 2018, Lei Fanpei, chairman of China National Shipbuilding Industry Corporation Co., Ltd., met with visiting Pakistani Navy Chief of Staff General Abbas in Beijing. The two sides reviewed the history of cooperation and achievements over the years and conducted in-depth exchanges on further expanding the scope of cooperation and deepening mutual benefit and win-win in the future.

Lei Fanpei welcomed Abai and his party's visit and expressed their gratitude to Abbas for its long-term concern and support. Lei Fanpei said that Pakistan is China's all-weather "iron buddy", and China-Pakistan friendship has a long history and long history. CSSC has a long history of friendly cooperation with the Pakistan Navy.

Especially in recent years, under the strong promotion of Admiral Abas, the cooperation between the two sides has yielded fruitful results. Being able to provide equipment for the Pakistan Navy is the glory of the CSSC. Looking forward to the future, CSSC will further strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the Pakistani Navy in accordance with the instructions of the leaders of China and Pakistan on deepening China-Pakistan strategic cooperation, provide more high-quality and efficient products and services to the Pakistani Navy, and promote cooperation between the two sides. Going up a new level. I hope that General Abbas will continue to care for, support and promote the cooperation between the two sides.

Abbas is grateful to CSSC for its long-standing support to the Pakistan Navy in the field of naval equipment. Abbas said that China and Pakistan have had deep friendship for more than 60 years. China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative has been deeply rooted in Pakistan. The "China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Construction" has achieved remarkable results since its launch in 2013.

Abbas said that CSSC has strong capabilities in naval equipment development and the Pakistani Navy is very satisfied with the equipment and services provided by CSSC. When the leaders of the two countries met in Boao on April 10 this year, they proposed to strengthen cooperation in various fields. The Pakistani Navy hopes to continue to strengthen cooperation with CSSC, further expand the scope of cooperation and deepen mutual benefit.

The most obvious change of the 054A export frigate is to replace the original Seahawk S/C three-coordinate radar with the domestic SR2410C radar. The latter is based on the improvement of the Russian top-level three-coordinate radar. The roof radar is frequency. Sweeping array, which uses the frequency change to change the beam pointing, so the electronic countermeasure capability is affected. In contrast, the SR2410 radar uses a phased array system, which uses phase changes to change the beam pointing, and the frequency does not need to change, so the electronic countermeasure capability is more Strong, frequency sweeping arrays are gradually replaced by phased arrays in the new century. This is the reason.

In addition, the SR2410 radar uses an active phased array system to realize two-dimensional electronic scanning. Especially after detecting the target, it is possible to quickly turn the beam back to confirm. It does not require a top/sea eagle radar to rotate a circle to confirm the target, and the reaction capability is faster, which can better counter the supersonic anti-ship missile and saturation attack, so it will be equipped with the enhanced 054A export-type frigate combat capability.

The missile-illumination radar ship-to-air missile is still a Hongqi 16 ship-to-air missile. It may be its export-type LY-80N ship-to-air missile. It is reported that Pakistan has introduced the Red Flag 16 exit. Type anti-aircraft missile-LY80 anti-aircraft missile, so the 054A export-oriented frigate has strong versatility with LY-80 anti-aircraft in terms of logistics support.

The LN-80N ship-to-air missile has a maximum range of about 40 kilometers, which can extrapolate the ship's air defense capability to The water antenna can not only provide air defense cover for the ship, but also provide a certain air defense barrier for small ships. The missile adopts radio command plus relay inertial navigation plus terminal semi-active radar guidance system, which has strong anti-interference ability and low altitude. The interception capability can intercept the targets of the sea and the supersonic anti-ship missiles.

The 054A export frigate still uses two sets of square quadruple anti-ship missile launchers, so its anti-ship missiles may still be the C-802 series. These missiles are also heavily equipped in the Pakistani navy, including the F22P frigate and the Azmat class. Missile speedboats, etc., the AIP submarine introduced from China in the future may also be equipped with its submarine-launch type. The Pakistan Air Force JF-17 fighter aircraft can also launch the C-802 airborne type. Of course, the 054A export-type frigate may be equipped with C-802.

The latest improved version of the series of missiles, the C-802B anti-ship missile, has a longer range than the C-802A now equipped by the Pakistani Navy, from 180 km to 290 km. The guidance system has also been upgraded. The guidance system is upgraded to a master/passive composite radar guidance system, and even a radar/infrared imaging guidance system can be modified to improve the missile strike capability and anti-jamming capability.

Steel Cutting ceremony of first warship of Type 054 A/P Frigates Project being built for Pakistan Navy was held at Hudong Zhonghua (HZ) Shipyard China December 20, 2018. Vice Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Kaleem Shaukat graced the ceremony as Chief Guest. While addressing the ceremony the Admiral highlighted that today's accomplishment also ushers new chapter in Pak-China friendship that has matured through the tests of times and has remained steadfast in other domains. Both countries are bounded by the affinity of trust, compassion and commonality.

Once constructed, the warship will be one of the largest and technologically advanced platforms of Pakistan's Navy and strengthen the country's capability to respond to future challenges, maintain peace and stability and the balance of power in the Indian Ocean region. It will also support the Pakistani Navy's initiative of securing sea lanes for international shipping by patrolling distant waters, it said in a statement on its twitter account.

Type 054A is the best frigate in service with the PLA Navy. Military sources said the ship has a fully loaded displacement of about 4,000 metric tons and is equipped with advanced radars and missiles. About 30 Type 054As are in service with the PLA Navy, observers said. Cao Weidong, a senior researcher at the PLA's Naval Military Studies Research Institute, said that in the past, the Pakistani Navy would ask its Chinese contractors to use Western radars or weapons on ships constructed by Chinese shipbuilders because it believed Western naval technologies were better than Chinese ones. "But it seems that all weapons and radars on the new ship will be Chinese products, which reflects our progress in the industry and the Pakistani Navy's confidence in our technology and capability," he said.

Cao said there are many nations selling frigates in the market, so Pakistan must have made thorough comparisons in terms of combat capability and costs. "I believe the reason they chose our type is that ours is one of the few that can carry out all of the air-defense, anti-ship and anti-submarine tasks," he said, expecting the service of the Chinese frigate to substantially boost Pakistan's defense capability.

An insider in China's shipbuilding sector with knowledge of the Type 054AP program told China Daily on condition of anonymity that the ship is the largest and most powerful combat vessel China has ever exported. "Based on pictures circulating on the internet, the ship will have vertical launch cells that can fire Chinese HQ-16 air-defense missiles and other kinds of missiles. Vertical launch cells will bring flexibility to the user in terms of weapons portfolio, thus giving it a stronger fighting capability," he said, adding that the Type 054AP is the best frigate Pakistan can access in the international market. "The service of Type 054APs will double the combat power of the Pakistani Navy's surface fleet," he said.

China launched the second Type 054A/P frigate for Pakistan on 29 January 2021 in Shanghai, as the Pakistan Navy Chief Naval Overseer highlighted at the launch ceremony that induction of the Type 054A/P warships will significantly enhance Pakistan's maritime defense and deterrence capabilities. The launch of the second Type 054A/P frigate was held at Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai. The occasion coincided with the completion of 70 years of Pakistan-China diplomatic relations "built upon historic bonds of friendship and mutual trust"

The launch ceremony of the third state-of-the-art Type-054 class frigate constructed for the Pakistan Navy was held at 04 August 2021 Hudong Zhonghua Shipyard, China.

Pakistan Navy’s first Type 054A/P Frigate, PNS TUGHRIL was commissioned at Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard, China on November 8, 2021. Ambassador of Pakistan to China, H. E. Mr. Moin ul Haque graced the occasion as the chief guest. PNS TUGHRIL is first of 4 Type 054 Frigates being constructed for Pakistan Navy. The ship is technologically advanced and a highly capable platform with enormous surface-to-surface, surface-to-air and underwater firepower besides extensive surveillance potential. The ship holds the capability to simultaneously execute a number of naval warfare missions in a highly intense multi-threat environment. PNS TUGHRIL is equipped with state-of-the-art combat management and electronic warfare system along with modern self-defence capabilities.

Amb. Moin ul Haque underlined that the commissioning of PNS TUGHRIL ushers a new chapter in Pak-China friendship, that has matured through the tests of times and has remained steadfast in all domains. He added that in the context of overall security paradigm of the region, TUGHRIL Class Frigates will strengthen Pakistan Navy’s capabilities to respond to maritime challenges in order to ensure seaward defence, maintain peace, stability and balance of power in the Indian Ocean Region. The Ambassador also praised the concerted efforts made by CSSC, CSTC, CSDDC, HZ Shipyard and PLA (Navy) for the landmark achievement by timely delivery of the well-equipped and potent Frigate despite the global pandemic.

The Vice Party Secretary and Director of the Board CSSC, Mr. Du Gang, also applauded the timely construction of PNS TUGHRIL while emphasising that the commissioning of the ship is a major milestone and testimony of Pak-China long-lived friendship; as both countries are bound by the affinity of trust, compassion and commonality.

While presenting an account of the activities, the head of Pakistan Navy mission overseeing the construction of 054A/P Frigate, Commodore Rashid Mehmood Sheikh highlighted that PNS TUGHRIL, being a multi-mission capable Frigate, will form the mainstay of Pakistan Navy fleet while bolstering Pakistan Navy’s maritime defence capabilities.

On 11 December 2021 Pakistan Navy Ship TUGHRIL visited Naval Base Lumut, Malaysia as part of good will visit and flag showing mission. Upon arrival at port, Pakistan Navy Ship TUGHRIL was received by Defence Attaché of Pakistan at Kuala Lumpur and senior officials from Royal Malaysian Navy. The visit of PNS TUGHRIL included harbour and sea phases. In harbour phase table top discussions on professional matters and bilateral interactions were held. Whereas, sea phase included conduct of bilateral exercise MALPAK in which PNS TUGHRIL along with three Ships and a Helicopter participated from Royal Malaysian Navy. Visit of Pakistan Navy Ship to Malaysia provided an opportunity for both countries to further enhance the existing close diplomatic ties and cordial relations.

The Pakistan Navy on 24 January 2022 inducted the PNS Tughril, the first of four Type 054A/P frigates developed by China, in the Pakistan Navy Fleet, with the president of Pakistan hailing the friendship between the two countries and announcing that the Type 054A/Ps will serve to safeguard the sea routes of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

President Dr Arif Alvi was the chief guest on the occasion. Addressing the ceremony, the President said that Pak-China friendship is time-tested and getting stronger with each and every passing day. He said that although, Pakistan is a peace-loving country and has no nefarious designs against anyone, however, at the same time, it is also capable to foil ill designs of the enemy. He said that Pakistan is not in any arms race with any country as its defense capability is only for safeguarding its national interest and sovereignty.

China delivered the second of four powerful Type 054A/P frigates to the Pakistan Navy on 23 June 2022, highlighting the friendship between the two neighboring countries, which serves as a pillar of peace and stability in the region. The PNS Taimur was commissioned at the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai. The PNS Taimur is the second of four Type 054 A/P frigates China built for the Pakistan Navy. The first Type 054A/P frigate, the PNS Tughril, joined the Pakistan Navy Fleet in January. The other two are under construction in China.