It was reported that on April 26, 2024, in Wuhan (China), the Wuhan Shuangliu shipbuilding enterprise of the Chinese association Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group Co., Ltd (WSIG, as part of the Chinese state Shipbuilding Corporation China State Shipbuilding Corporation - CSSC) launched the first ship built there for the Pakistan Navy the large non-nuclear submarine Hangor of the Chinese export project S20.
The launching ceremony at the Wuhan Shuangliu shipbuilding enterprise of the Chinese association Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group Co., Ltd (as part of the Chinese State Shipbuilding Corporation China State Shipbuilding Corporation), the head of the Hangor large non-nuclear submarine built for the Pakistani Navy of the Chinese export project S20. Wuhan, 04/26/2024 (c) Pakistan Navy
The formal contractor for the construction of submarines of the S20 project for Pakistan is the foreign trade shipbuilding association China Shipbuilding and Offshore International Company Ltd. (CSOC), which is part of the CSSC corporation. On July 23, 2015, the Government of Pakistan signed a contract with an estimated value of about $5 billion with CSOC (then part of the Chinese shipbuilding corporation China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, now part of the unified shipbuilding corporation CSSC) for the construction of eight large non-nuclear submarines of the Chinese export project S20 for the Pakistani Navy. 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 should have a surface displacement of 2,300 tons, a total underwater displacement of 3,000 tons and a length of 77.6 m (previously, some sources cited a length of 66 m). According to the terms of the contract, four boats for Pakistan should be built in China, and four more at the Pakistani 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, is the largest Chinese defense export contract to date.
It is known that under the terms of the contract, four Chinese-built boats should be delivered to the Pakistani Navy in 2022-2023, and four boats under construction with Chinese help at KSEW - by the end of 2028. The construction of submarines of the S20 project for Pakistan is underway at the new Wuhan Shuangliu shipbuilding enterprise of the Wuchang Shipbuilding Group of the CSSC Corporation located in the Gulong Industrial zone in Wuhan. Little information was disseminated about the progress of the construction of these boats in China, however, it is known that the naming ceremony of the Hangor lead boat took place in Wuhan on April 29, 2019.
It was stated that the lead boat should be commissioned in 2022, but the construction of 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 superhuman quarantine measures. As a result, the lead boat for Pakstan Hangor has been launched only now, and, apparently, will be commissioned no earlier than the end of the year. According to Chinese sources, the second boat of this type under construction in Wuhan is named Ghazi.
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 sub-fleet 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 since 2015 for the construction of submarines of the S20 project in Pakistan. The ceremony of the first steel cutting and the start of construction of the lead boat of the Pakistani-built Tasnim [...] took place at KSEW on December 9, 2021. The ceremony of its official laying took place on December 24, 2022, at the same time, the ceremony of the first steel cutting for the second boat under construction in Pakistan took place at KSEW (its official laying took place on February 14, 2024).
The lead boat of the new Hangor type, which is being built in China, was named after the French-built S 131 Hangor submarine of the 1960s of the Daphne type, which was previously part of the Pakistani Navy. On December 9, 1971, the submarine S 131 Hangor sank the Indian frigate F 149 Khukri (British Type 14), which became 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 Daphne-type S 131 Hangor boat was decommissioned from the Pakistani Navy in 2006 and is now installed at the Naval Museum in Karachi.
