Pak to purchase 3 advanced-level submarines

Islamabad, Nov 9 (UNI) Pakistan will acquire three new advanced versions of conventional submarines in an effort to bolster its naval capabilities to be at par with the rapidly expanding Indian navy.

The Daily Times reported that German and French companies would bid for the contract of the three submarines, which were said to be the latest version of the Agosta submarines, built in Pakistan by a French company.

France will offer Pakistan Marlin submarines to compete with the German bid for U-212 submarines.

Pakistan will pay one billion euros or Rs 77 billion for the three non-nuclear submarines. The quest for new submarines comes after India reached a 1.5 billion euro deal last year with a French company for seven Scorpion submarines even more recent than the Agosta submarines that Pakistan built last year in Karachi under licence from a French company.

Pakistan navy at present has a fleet of three Agosta 90B submarines.

But even with the Marlin or U-212 submarines, the Pakistan Navy will lag behind the Indians, as the Scorpion submarines are believed to be technologically superior, the paper added.

France-Pakistan defence relations improved after terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, but received a serious setback in 2002 when 11 French defence engineers were killed in a suicide attack near the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi.

The Scorpion subs are technologically superior to the Agosta, Marlin and U-212 submarines. However, Scorpion subs cannot carry nuclear warheads and India will not get them before 2016. If the French company wins the bid, Pakistan will have to wait eight years before getting them.

Senior Pakistani and French military officials would meet January next year in either Paris or Islamabad to further strengthen strategic relations between the two armies.

UNI XC MQA ND1808