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Outgoing Pakistan Navy Chief Reveals 50-Ship Vision

Pakistan’s outgoing Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Zafar Mahmoud Abbasi, revealed that the service arm is working to build a fleet of 50 ships, of which at least 20 would be ‘major surface vessels.’

On 07 October 2020, the Pakistan Navy (PN) appointed Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi as its new Chief of Naval Staff (CNS). Admiral Niazi will succeed Admiral Zafar Mahmoud Abbasi as CNS.

In his change-of-command speech, the outgoing CNS outlined the service’s modernization plans for 2030 across its surface, sub-surface, and aviation domains. Overall, Admiral Abbasi emphasized that the PN will aggressively expand its deployment capabilities, and, in parallel, its in-house development capacities.

The PN has already taken a number of organizational steps to absorb these upcoming changes.

First, the PN reformed its traditional destroyer and patrol craft squadrons into three Surface Task Groups (STG). The PN stationed STG 1, STG 2, and STG 3 at Gwadar, Ormara, and Karachi, respectively.

Second, the PN activated naval air stations in Pakistan’s west coast for day and night aviation operations.

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Bilal Khan

Bilal Khan

Founder of Quwa, Bilal has been researching Pakistani defence industry and security issues for over 15 years. His work has been cited by Pakistan's National Defence University (NDU), the Council of Foreign Relations, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Centre of Airpower Studies and many others. He has a Hons. B.A in Political Science and Masters of Interntional Public Policy from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

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