TSAMTO, June 29. The Pakistani Navy, according to Shepherd, has decided to replace the anti-aircraft missile weapons of the Ada-class corvettes under construction (the Turkish MILGEM project).
Shepherd reports that the construction of the last of the four corvettes for the Pakistani Navy has begun at the Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works (KS&EW). The first steel cutting ceremony for the last ship of the series, held on June 15, was attended by the Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan. At the same time, as Shepherd notes, multimedia images of the ship were presented at the event, different from the previous ones, with an emphasis on changing the composition of weapons.
In earlier videos, Ada-class corvettes were presented with a medium-range HHQ-16/LY-80N air defense system manufactured by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (a derivative of the Soviet Buk air defense system). The latest rendering of the Pakistani corvette did not display the fire control radar associated with the HHQ-16, but the MBDA Albatross NG system and its vertical soft-launch launcher were clearly visible.
The Pakistan Navy expects that the first of the four new corvettes will be commissioned in 2024. This corresponds to the date mentioned by MBDA in a press release dated March 2021, when the company received the first order from an unnamed foreign customer for the supply of the Albatros NG ship air defense system, which is a variant of the extended range of the CAMM (Common Anti-air Modular Missile) family.
Pakistani defense analyst Usman Ansari told Shepherd that, in his opinion, the transition from Chinese missiles to European ones does not mean that the Pakistani Navy is dissatisfied with the characteristics of the HHQ-16 air defense system. This is just a statement of the fact that the Pakistani Navy cannot depend on just one supplier (for example, all four Type-054A multi-purpose frigates ordered in China for the Pakistani Navy will be armed with HHQ-16 complexes).
Another important factor for the transition from Chinese anti-aircraft missiles to European ones can be significant weight savings without compromising performance or even improving them. The CAMM-ER missile has a longer range than the Chinese HHQ-16 missile system, with a significantly lower mass (160 kg versus 650 kg for the Chinese missile).
According to Shepherd, all four corvettes will be equipped with Albatros NG systems. The first two are being built at the Istanbul Naval Shipyard in Turkey, and the second pair is being built in Karachi. The ships are to be delivered to the Pakistani Navy between 2023 and 2025. Shephard Defense Insight estimates the cost of each corvette at $ 250 million.
