Pakistan’s navy commissioned its first Hangor-class submarine in late May 2026 at a ceremony in Sanya, a port city on China’s Hainan island that doubles as a major Chinese naval base. President Asif Ali Zardari attended as chief guest alongside Pakistan Navy chief Adm. Naveed Ashraf, elevating what could have been a routine military handover into a high-profile diplomatic event.
The submarine is the lead vessel in an eight-boat procurement program between Islamabad and Beijing, one of the largest conventional submarine deals active anywhere in the world. A second hull has already been completed at a Chinese shipyard, signaling that the production pipeline is moving and further deliveries could follow at a steady clip.
A name with history
The class name is deliberate. Pakistan’s original PNS Hangor, a French-built Daphne-class boat, sank the Indian frigate INS Khukri during the 1971 war, the only confirmed submarine kill in combat since World War II. By reviving the name, the Pakistani navy is tying its most ambitious modernization effort to the single most celebrated moment in its institutional history.
For a fleet that has long relied on aging platforms, the scale of the program is striking. The deal, widely reported to be worth roughly $4 to $5 billion, calls for four submarines to be built in China and four more assembled at Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works in Pakistan. That split makes the arrangement more than a straightforward arms purchase. It is a technology transfer and industrial development bet, one that could eventually position Pakistan among the small number of countries capable of building modern conventional submarines.
What the submarines bring to Pakistan’s fleet
The Hangor class is derived from China’s Yuan-class (Type 039B) submarine lineage, a design that has been in serial production for the People’s Liberation Army Navy. The boats are widely described as featuring air-independent propulsion, or AIP, a technology that allows diesel-electric submarines to remain submerged for extended periods without surfacing to recharge batteries. If the AIP system performs as expected, it would give Pakistan a meaningful upgrade in underwater endurance compared to its current fleet.
Beyond propulsion, precise performance characteristics remain undisclosed. Diving depth, weapons loadout, sensor capabilities, and combat system details have not been confirmed through official Pakistani or Chinese government channels. Defense analysts have offered assessments based on the Yuan class’s known features, but those should be treated as informed estimates rather than verified specifications until official technical data surfaces.
The strategic backdrop
The commissioning lands in a region where underwater capability is increasingly contested. India has been expanding its own submarine fleet, with programs that include nuclear-powered boats and a new class of conventional submarines. Pakistan’s acquisition of eight modern boats reshapes the arithmetic of the India-Pakistan naval balance in the Arabian Sea and the broader Indian Ocean, a waterway that carries a significant share of global trade.
Zardari’s presence in Sanya also underscores the political dimension. Heads of state do not typically attend military procurement events. By making the commissioning a bilateral occasion, both Islamabad and Beijing signaled that they view the Hangor-class program as a visible marker of their defense partnership, not something to be handled quietly through military channels alone.
China’s own strategic calculus is harder to pin down. Beijing has confirmed the construction and delivery but has not publicly detailed how it views the program, whether as a commercial export, a strategic investment in a regional partner, or both. Without those statements, the degree of Chinese strategic intent behind the deal remains a matter of interpretation.
The harder half lies ahead
The program’s real test will not be the boats built in China. It will be the four slated for Karachi.
Building submarines domestically requires infrastructure, a trained workforce, and sustained institutional knowledge that Pakistan’s shipbuilding sector has not demonstrated at this scale. No official timeline has been released for when the Karachi-built hulls will be laid down or delivered, and the financial terms of the deal, including payment schedules, offset arrangements, and long-term maintenance commitments, remain undisclosed.
If Karachi Shipyard delivers on schedule and to specification, the implications extend well beyond the Hangor class. Pakistan would gain a submarine-building capability with potential applications for future programs and even defense exports. If the domestic phase stalls or slips, the program risks becoming a cautionary tale about the gap between procurement ambition and industrial capacity.
For now, one submarine is in Pakistani hands and a second is complete. Six more remain. The ceremony in Sanya was the opening act. Whether the Hangor-class program fulfills its promise depends on what happens next at a shipyard in Karachi.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
