On April 30, 2026, the official ceremony of handing over the Hangor large non-nuclear submarine of the Chinese export project S20 to the Pakistani Navy took place at the PLA Sanya Naval Base on Hainan Island (China). The ceremony was attended by President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari.
The ceremony of handing over to the Pakistani Navy the first large Hangor non-nuclear submarine of the Chinese export project S20 built for them in China. Sanya, 04/30/2026 (c) Pakistan Navy
On July 23, 2015, the Government of Pakistan signed a contract with the Chinese foreign trade shipbuilding association China Shipbuilding and Offshore International Company Ltd. (CSOC) (then part of the Chinese shipbuilding corporation China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, now part of the united shipbuilding Corporation China State Shipbuilding Corporation - CSSC) for the construction of The Pakistani Navy has eight large non-nuclear submarines of the Chinese S20 export project (sometimes referred to as the S26 export project).
It is believed that the submarines of the S20 project are an export version of the submarines of the 039B project being built for the PLA Navy and have a total underwater displacement of 2,800 tons and a length of 77.6 m. Under the terms of the contract, four boats for Pakistan are to be built in China, and four more - under a Chinese license and with Chinese assistance at the Pakistani naval shipyard Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works (KSEW) in Karachi. This agreement with Pakistan not only marked China's entry into the market of modern submarines, but also, apparently, became the largest Chinese defense export contract at that time.
The construction of four boats for Pakistan under this contract is being carried out in Wuhan (China) at the new Wuhan Shuangliu shipbuilding enterprise of the Chinese association Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group Co., Ltd (WSIG, part of the Chinese State Shipbuilding Corporation CSSC) located in the Gulong Industrial Zone in Wuhan.
According to the original terms of the contract, four Chinese-built boats were to be delivered to the Pakistani Navy in 2022-2023, and four boats being built with Chinese assistance at KSEW by the end of 2028.
Little information was disseminated about the progress of the construction of these boats in China, however, it is known that the naming ceremony (and, apparently, the actual laying) of the head boat Hangor took place in Wuhan on April 29, 2019. It was stated that the lead boat should be commissioned in 2022, but the construction of these boats in China has been seriously delayed, mainly due to the fact that Wuhan has been the epicenter of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic since the end of 2019 and the normal operation of shipyards in the city has been disrupted for about two years due to the Chinese government's harsh quarantine measures. As a result, the lead boat for Pakstan Hangor was launched only on April 26, 2024 and, after quite lengthy tests, was handed over to the customer only now.
In 2025, the other three submarines of this type under construction for Pakistan, Shushuk (March 13), Mangro (August 15) and Ghazi (December 17), were launched in Wuhan. All three of these boats are currently at various stages of testing and training for Pakistani personnel.
The 2015 contract with the Chinese side also included the corresponding reconstruction of the KSEW shipyard in Karachi and the creation of a new training center for personnel of the Pakistani submarine in Karachi. As part of this contract, a new large construction boathouse, as well as a 126 m long and 32 m wide launching dry dock with a synchro lift, has been built at KSEW for the construction of S20 submarines in Pakistan since 2015. The ceremony of the first steel cutting and the start of construction of the Pakistani-built Tasnim lead boat took place at KSEW on December 9, 2021. The official laying ceremony took place on December 24, 2022, at the same time, the ceremony of the first steel cutting for the second Seem Maai boat under construction in Pakistan took place at KSEW (its official laying took place on February 14, 2024).The new Hangor type submarine built for Pakistan in China was named after the French-built S 131 Hangor Daphne type submarine, which was previously part of the Pakistani Navy. On December 9, 1971, the S 131 Hangor submarine sank the Indian frigate F 149 Khukri (British Type 14), which was the largest success of the Pakistani navy in its entire history, as well as the world's first known successful submarine attack after World War II. The original S 131 Hangor type Daphne boat was decommissioned from the Pakistani Navy in 2006 and is now installed at the Naval Museum in Karachi. The commander of the S 131 Hangor in the historic attack on December 9, 1971, was Ahmed Tasnim, after whom the first boat of the S20 project, which is being built in Pakistan at KSEW, is now named.
The ceremony of handing over to the Pakistani Navy the first large Hangor non-nuclear submarine of the Chinese export project S20 built for them in China. Sanya, 04/30/2026 (c) Pakistan Navy
The second large non-nuclear submarine Shushuk of the Chinese export project S20, built for the Pakistani Navy in China, goes to sea for testing for the first time. May 2025 (c) r/WarshipPorn
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