ISLAMABAD, 12 December 2004 — Pakistan Navy yesterday officially added its first hovercraft and a military assault boat to its marine force at a ceremony, a news report said.
The hovercraft, assembled at the navy’s main facility near the southern city of Karachi, is designed to undertake “operations over water, land, mud, sand bars and shallow waters with equal ease,” said Rear Adm. Asad Qureshi, the navy’s top commander in Karachi, according to the domestic news agency Associated Press of Pakistan.
He said the military assault boat is designed for patrolling creek areas, which are believed to be used by smugglers.
“Induction of these state-of-the-art craft is indeed a quantum leap,” navy chief Adm. Shahid Karimullah said at the induction ceremony in Karachi. The navy had signed contracts to procure four hovercraft and four military assault boats with Britain and Thailand respectively a few years ago.
Pakistan has already inducted two of three state-of-the-art French Agosta-90B submarines into its navy. The third sub is presently being constructed in Karachi by Pakistani experts under complete transfer of technology by DCN International, the manufacturers of Agosta. This submarine will be put to deep sea and other trials by 2006.
In addition to the French submarines, Pakistan’s naval fleet comprises British-origin Type-21 frigates, Chinese-built oil tankers and indigenously manufactured small submarines, mine hunters and missile boats.
