China has completed building the first of the four frigates ordered by Pakistan three years ago. The warship, capable of operating in a multi-threat environment, will be launched at the Shanghai shipyard on April 7.
Pakistan Navy chief Admiral Muhammad Afzal Tahir will attend the ceremony in Shanghai to mark the launch of the first of four F-22P frigates, to be named PNS Zulfiqar, naval spokesman Captain Akbar Naqvi said on Saturday.
Under a contract signed by China and Pakistan in 2005, three of the warships are to be built in Shanghai and the fourth in Karachi shipyard under a transfer of technology agreement in 2013, Naqvi told Dawn News channel.
The frigates will be capable of operating in a multi-threat environment and will be equipped with long-range surface-to-surface missile systems capable of hitting multiple targets simultaneously.
They will also be equipped with undersea detection sensors capable of tracking nuclear and conventional submarines, said Naqvi.
Earlier reports had said the frigates are based on the Chinese Jiangwei-II design but feature an improved superstructure. The warships will have a displacement of 2,500 tonnes and a top speed of 29 knots.
The frigates will be armed with up to eight C-802 anti-ship missiles, short-range anti-aircraft missiles, twin 100mm main guns, two battling guns for anti-missile protection and an anti-submarine helicopter.
It is for the first time that Pakistan's navy is purchasing a major fighting unit from China, in a deviation of earlier trend of procuring such military hardware from the West, including Britain and France.
Describing the frigates as a very important component of Pakistan's surface fleet, Naval Chief Tahir, who is on a visit to Beijing, said they would be deployed for the defence of "Pakistan's maritime interests and to meet our commitments in other aspects of maritime diplomacy."
In a sign of their sound military cooperation, China's navy took part in its first ever naval exercise AMAN-07, in Karachi in March.
The Communist nation's China Daily quoted Tahir as saying that Pakistan would host a similar exercise next March.
Tahir met China's Defence Minister General Liang Guanglie on Thursday, with whom he spoke of deepening exchanges and cooperation between the defence departments and armed forces of the two countries, China's official Xinhua news agency said.
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