Pakistan starts construction of first frigate in partnership with Türkiye PHOTO

Pakistan's Ministry of Defense Production (MoDP) has signed a contract to build the first Jinnah-class frigate for the Pakistan Navy.

Jinnah class frigates will be the first ships of this class designed and built in Pakistan, Caliber.Az reports, citing Defense Turk’s X social media page, formerly known as Twitter.

🔵🇵🇰Pakistan, ilk Jinnah sınfı fırkateynin inşası için Karaçi Tersanesini seçti

🔸Jinnah sınıfı fırkateynler ASFAT liderliğinde Pakistan ile birlikte tasarlanmıştıhttps://t.co/SY7fYumMCT

— Defence Turk (@Defence_Turk) October 1, 2023

The Jinnah-class frigates were designed in Pakistan under the supervision of ASFAT's prime contractor PN MİLGEM.

The Jinnah class frigates will be able to defend against air, surface, submarine and asymmetric threats. In addition, the ship will be equipped and designed to perform search and rescue operations. The frigates, which will accommodate a total of 200 personnel, will have a range of 4,000 nautical miles by utilizing a CODAD-type main propulsion system.

It is very difficult for Pakistan to produce these ships on its own. In this context, even during the PN MILGEM project, ASFAT personnel solved most of the difficulties in Pakistan. In addition, the infrastructure for maintenance and handling of PN MILGEM ships was developed in Karachi, Karachi Shipyard personnel were trained in Turkey, and personnel were trained to produce new and modern ships. Moreover, Karachi Shipyard has been provided with technology transfer and support as well as the ability to build PN MILGEM ships.

The PN MILGEM corvettes, an improved version of the Ada class ships, are warships designed by increasing their length and width and re-doing all calculations and layouts to suit the needs of the Pakistan Navy. All the design processes of the ships were redesigned. Model experiments, force calculations, hydrodynamic calculations, vibration, explosion and strength calculations were carried out from scratch, the power of all systems was recalculated in response to the increasing dimensions, the design was finalized and it is now ranked amongst the best in the world.

PN MILGEM is Turkey's largest export project in the maritime field. Apart from the economic dimension, this agreement also had a strategic significance. Besides contributing immensely to Pakistan-Turkey relations, it is a project that has the potential to elevate Pakistan to a decisive position in the region with its efficient and advanced platform and weapon systems.