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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Pakistan
Index
In 1994 the navy had some 22,000 personnel. The force
included a small Naval Air Arm and the approximately
2,000-member
paramilitary Maritime Security Agency, charged primarily
with
protecting Pakistan's exclusive economic zone. The naval
reserve
consisted of about 5,000 personnel.
In 1994 the navy had four commands: COMPAK--the fleet;
COMLOG--logistics; COMFORNAV--naval installations in the
north of
Pakistan; and COMKAR--naval headquarters and the only
major base
at Karachi. There were long-range plans to build a new
naval base
at Ormara, 240 kilometers west of Karachi, and to improve
harbors
at Gwadar and Pasni to help alleviate overdependence on
Karachi.
The navy's principal combatants in 1994 were six
submarines
of French origin equipped with United States Harpoon
missiles;
negotiations with the French for three additional
submarines have
been reported. The navy had three active old destroyers
(one of
British and two of United States origin), four United
States-made
guided missile frigates, six other frigates (two from
Britain and
four from the United States), and two United States-made
and one
French-made mine warfare craft. One destroyer and four
frigates
carried Harpoon missiles; the navy had acquired an unknown
number
of Mistral close-in surface-to-air missiles from France.
There
were eight missile craft, and thirteen coastal combatant
and
patrol craft, all of Chinese origin. The Naval Air Arm had
four
combat aircraft flown by air force personnel and armed
with
Exocet missiles and sixteen armed helicopters. The
delivery of
three P-3C Orion long-range reconnaissance aircraft from
the
United States had been suspended since 1990 (see
table 15,
Appendix).
In 1991 a naval special warfare marine commando unit,
with a
strength of between 150 and 200 men, was established. Its
functions, in addition to hull inspection and special
operations,
included operating three midget submarines.
Although the navy clearly needed to grow, its immediate
future was threatened by a reduction in equipment brought
about
by the Pressler Amendment imposed in 1990
(see The Armed Forces in a New World Order
, this ch.). The Pakistan Navy had to
return
four Brooke (Badr)-class and four Garcia (Saif)-class
frigates to
the United States at the end of their five-year lease. In
addition, one British-made destroyer, the Babur,
was
retired in 1994. At the same time, all three United States
destroyers became fully operational, and an additional six
Amazon-class frigates purchased from Britain were to be
delivered
in late 1994.
Data as of April 1994
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