Pakistan is making a bet on Hangor-class submarines to sharpen its undersea edge as its deterrent increasingly rests on deepening navy integration with China as a substitute of any single platform.
Last month, a pair of media sources launched the commissioning of Pakistan’s first Chinese-constructed Hangor-class submarine, PNS/M Hangor. The ceremony took pickle in Sanya and became attended by President Asif Ali Zardari and Navy Chief Admiral Naveed Ashraf, signaling a truly well-known advancement in Pakistan’s naval modernization efforts.
The induction kinds fragment of a broader opinion to achieve eight submarines—four in-constructed China and 4 domestically below a technology-transfer program—aimed at strengthening maritime security and safeguarding well-known sea traces of verbal exchange amid rising tensions and current missile checks.
An export variant of China’s Yuan-class compose, the Hangor-class submarines are outfitted with air-self sustaining propulsion, developed sensors and trendy weapons and are expected to enhance Pakistan’s deterrence posture whereas bettering its anti-entry/build of dwelling denial capabilities as soon as this technique is done.
Officials described this technique as a “historical milestone” to bolster speedy capabilities, though timelines have slipped from initial starting up targets, with the first vessel launched in 2024 and commissioned in 2026.
The transfer underscores the expansion of Pakistan-China defense cooperation following current warfare dynamics with India and complements earlier Chinese hands transfers, including J-10C fighter jets.
The Hangor-class submarines’ tactical employment can also focal level on outdated torpedo and anti-ship missile operations, because the possibility of escalation limits their practicality for sea-essentially based mostly mostly nuclear deterrence.
Trying at the tactical capabilities of the Hangor-class submarines, the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) notes in September 2024 that the class is outfitted with fifty three-millimeter torpedo tubes, which allow the commence of heavy torpedoes such because the Chinese Yu-6, as smartly as anti-ship cruise missiles.
While Pakistan might per chance make a selection to arm its fresh submarines with nuclear-tipped submarine-launched cruise missiles (SLCMs) to place a sea-essentially based mostly mostly nuclear deterrent, Betzalel Newman notes in an April 2025 Stimson Middle article that Pakistan’s Babur-3 SLCM is suboptimal for the sort of job.
Newman substances out that cruise missiles are much less regularly employed for nuclear functions, in particular at sea, due to they have lighter payloads and shorter maximum ranges than ballistic missiles.
He additionally provides that Pakistan arming its submarines with SLCMs might per chance rep a discipline of nuclear ambiguity, as it’d be hard for India to search out out whether an incoming weapon is nuclear or conventionally armed, risking escalation. As such, Newman says Pakistan is possible to deploy its fresh submarines in further outdated roles.
From an operational standpoint, on the opposite hand, their affect remains restricted, with Namita Barthwal noting in a January 2026 report for the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Stories and Analyses (MP-IDSA) that Pakistan’s Hangor-class submarines symbolize an incremental ability prevail in as a substitute of a decisive shift within the naval balance.
She means that they might be able to also step by step pork up Pakistan’s ability to care for an underwater presence, which would complicate crises, build bigger the necessity for anti-submarine efforts, influence service provider shipping advisories and build bigger the worth and discipline for India in maritime reassurance and in managing escalations at some level of posthaste crises.
She notes that changing older boats and rising patrol frequency might per chance enable Pakistan to note Indian ships more regularly at some level of peacetime, care for India unsure at some level of crises, and threaten sea routes approach Indian ports and naval bases.
This approach might per chance be especially efficient if backed by Chinese coaching, spare aspects, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and lifecycle toughen.
The operational role of the Hangor-class submarines is to pork up Pakistan’s underwater deterrence and toughen a sea-denial blueprint to offset India’s larger and more succesful naval forces within the Indian Ocean.
Situating Pakistan’s submarines contained within the nation’s broader operational approach, Saad Riaz notes in a January 2026 article for the Middle for Strategic and Up-to-the-minute Learn (CSCR) that shopping Hangor-class submarines is well-known for deterring India’s expanding naval footprint and growing sub-surface capabilities within the Indian Ocean space.
Taken together, these assessments level to a approach centered on offsetting structural naval disadvantages as a substitute of attaining parity.
Trying at the navy balance at sea between the two rivals, Rajeswari Rajagopalan and Linus Cohen price in a June 2025 report for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) that India has persistently had increased outdated navy strength than Pakistan at some level of fundamental tools classes.
They point out that India operates more naval sources, including 16 submarines when in contrast with Pakistan’s five, 15 frigates versus Pakistan’s 11, and 12 destroyers towards Pakistan’s 0.
They additionally existing that India has two aircraft carriers and two nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), which Pakistan does no longer have.
In that context, M. Usman Askari and Mudassar Ali Iqbal price in a June 2023 article within the inquire-reviewed South Asian Stories journal that, as a navy with restricted sources and a smaller speedy, Pakistan cannot match India’s superior outdated capabilities, necessitating a highlight on substitute approaches.
Askari and Iqbal emphasize an asymmetric approach, the exercise of unconventional ways and weapons — including submarines and coastal defense programs — to offset India’s larger speedy, alongside a “sea denial” doctrine aimed at restricting India’s exercise of surrounding waters and limiting its operational advantage.
The strategic significance of the Hangor-class program lies in its integration within a deepening Pakistan–China defense partnership, characterized by large hands transfers, interoperability and coordinated navy alignment aimed at counterbalancing India.
Khalil Ahmad, in a January 2026 article within the inquire-reviewed Reach Social Science Archive journal, notes that China has emerged as Pakistan’s fundamental hands provider, offering developed navy programs that underpin its defense capabilities and toughen bilateral navy ties.
Supporting Ahmad’s substances, data from the Stockholm Global Peace Learn Institute (SIPRI) existing that from 2021 to 2025, China became the fifth-biggest hands exporter, accounting for five.6% of the area hands alternate at some level of that length. The information additionally presentations that Pakistan became its prime consumer, accounting for 61% of Chinese hands sales.
Ahmad provides that this navy cooperation is complemented by joint workout routines, coaching exchanges and intelligence sharing, which counterpoint interoperability and operational coordination, reflecting Pakistan’s growing reliance on Chinese navy toughen within an increasingly entrenched strategic partnership.
Furthermore, Harsh Pant and Rahul Rawat advise in a June 2025 article for The National Hobby that China–Pakistan navy cooperation poses a strategic possibility to India by setting up an emerging “two-front” discipline rooted in longstanding territorial disputes, including Kashmir and contested areas along the China-India border.
Pant and Rawat state both worldwide locations align to counterbalance India and contest its sovereignty claims, in particular following trends in Jammu and Kashmir since 2019. They dispute the connection as a “threshold alliance,” enabling ability pooling, joint planning and interoperability.
They highlight the exercise of Chinese navy technology, ISR toughen and efforts to emulate multi-domain warfare, producing a functional navy synergy that translates geopolitical alignment into a “accurate-time” possibility to India’s national security.
Such territorial disputes might per chance prolong into the maritime domain. As Hangor-class submarines integrate with Chinese programs, their cumulative operate can also no longer overturn the naval balance but intensify good-energy competitors within the Indian Ocean, sharpening undersea operations as a key enviornment for deterrence and strategic competitors among Pakistan, India and China.
