This week’s Quwa Premium article is a recap of some defence news items from around the world. Besides a basic overview of the news, this article also offers short-form analysis of each issue.
ASFAT A.Ş. Selects SSI’s ShipConstructor Solution for Jinnah-Class Frigate
To support the engineering process of the Pakistan Navy’s (PN) Jinnah-class frigate program, the Turkish defence contractor ASFAT A.Ş. selects SSI’s ShipConstructor suite.
ShipConstructor is a software platform that works within AutoCAD. Its selection indicates that the PN has frozen the design requirements of the Jinnah-class frigate. Thus, ASFAT A.Ş. and the PN’s in-house design bureau, the Navy Research and Development Institute (NRDI), will now implement the ship’s final design work. SSI’s ShipConstructor will play a part in the modelling and engineering work of the hull.
Pakistan initiated the Jinnah-class frigate (JCF) as part of its MILGEM corvette acquisition from Turkey back in 2018. Under the contract, the PN is slated to receive four MILGEM corvettes (designated as the Babur-class corvette) and an indigenous, jointly-designed frigate.
It seems that the JCF will play a key part in driving the PN’s goal to build a 50-strong surface fleet, of which 20 ships will be “major surface vessels.” The latter refers to frigates and, potentially, corvettes. Given that it is investing in an original design program, the PN likely intends to construct a large number of JCFs.
However, a potentially more crucial point is that the NRDI is learning about the ship design process directly from ASFAT A.Ş. The NRDI could re-apply the knowledge it gains to future surface warship programs. The JCF’s size and capability set open the door for the NRDI to try its hand at designing frigates, offshore patrol vessels (OPV), corvettes, and fast attack crafts (FAC) in the future.
It will be interesting to see if the PN extends this focus on original design work to submarines. While China was supposed to have been a guaranteed supply avenue, it is not entirely immune.
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