New Frigates Ordered: Pakistan Remains the Largest Buyer Of Arms from China

Pakistan is one of the largest buyers of Chinese arms. It upheld its status when it was decided to buy eight brand new stealth attack submarines from China late last year. The value of one submarine is somewhere between $4-$5 billion.

This year Pakistan further showed their loyalty to China as a customer by signing contracts to acquire frigates from the neighboring country.

The New Contract

Early this month, the former naval chief Muhammad Zakaullah retired and was replaced by Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi. In his farewell speech, he revealed that the new vessels, which were bought last year, are in the process of induction and new contracts have also been signed for frigates.

He further said that the main aim of this new ammunition was to strengthen the Pakistan navy. There were no details regarding the type and quantity of frigates being acquired.

Chinese Media Reveals Information Regarding the New Contract

The government of China has kept their comments minimal regarding the new deal. The Chinese media, however, uncovered that it is the first time that such a huge contract has been officially approved and confirmed by Pakistan. They also predicted that 4000 ton frigates have also been acquired by Pakistan as the two countries extend their close military bond.

Collection of Data by SIPRI

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) also looked into the matter and uncovered that Pakistan was the main buyer of China’s arms till the end of last year. A whopping 30% of their trade was to Pakistan. Followed by Pakistan, were Algeria and Bangladesh as the leading buyers of arms and ammunition from China.

Late in September this year, the completion of China-Pakistan venture for Shaheen-VI air training was announced. The training was held in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

According to Xinhua, a chinese media agency, Chinese J-11 fighter jets, JH-7 fighter-bombers, KJ-200 AWACS aircraft and Pakistani JF-17 Thunder fighter jets were used for multiple exercises in the 3-week long training sessions.

The exercises included air-to-air combat, close air support operation, air-to-ground attack and a confrontational operation involving multiple arms of the air force. Lieutenant General Zhan Houshun, the commander in charge, hopes that the new training and ammunition will play a huge role in the fight against terrorism.

Via TimesOfIslamabad


  • What sort of economic principle is this? Chinese invest 40 billion dollars through CPEC and we give it back by buying submarines. I completely don’t understand this.

      • Point is shouldn’t we be more inclined towards basic necessities like education, hospitals etc with Chinese investment. If our media is to be believed, CPEC investments are to the tune of 40 billion dollars. Not that defence is important, shouldn’t our economy also be of importance? I think time has come to scrutinize our defence investments. I mean look at our economy, we are doing worse than Iran, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Turkey etc (countries of same size population wise). My thoughts, no intention of hurting anybody’s sentiments.

        • Just think for a moment, if we had invested the same amount of money that is being dolled out to submarines on infrastructure, we could have attracted more investment not only from Chinese, but also from other land locked central Asian nations. This could have made us more self reliant.

            • This is called as playing according to our strength. Unfortunately, we have missed that bus. We are still focused on submarines and frigates. Only money and economics triumph when there is war.

    • we need arms dude for defense as USA block arms and make do more policy good thinking by defense. we survive withoud food but not without defence. i dont say israeli MP says this on early israeli days. gzva badar is best answer for your question

  • Lol Pro Pakistani please stick to your field of expertise which is mostly the information technology segment, defence news isn’t your forte. Each submarine is estimated to cost anywhere
    between 250 and 350 million usd
    band the whole package inclusive of training coat for the officers and submarine crew, spare
    b parts e.t.c will be anywhere between 5-6 billion USD. I mean even the Us Navy’s best SSN nuclear attack submarine the Virginia class doesn’t cost 5-6 billion a piece
    b it’s 2.6 billion usd to be precise b.
    httpsm/naval/2015/04/03/pakistan-to-buy-8-submarines-from-china/


  • Get Alerts

    Follow ProPakistani to get latest news and updates.


    ProPakistani Community

    Join the groups below to get latest news and updates.



    >