China to soon deliver 8 submarines to Pakistan, expected to tilt balance of power in Indian Ocean

By Manish Shukla

China will soon be delivering eight submarines — the deal had been struck earlier — to Pakistan.

The delivery is expected to tilt the balance of power in the Indian Ocean.

India currently has 16 submarines, Pakistan has 10. With the additional eight submarines, Pakistan will have more submarines in its waters than India.

Along with the submarines, China will also be giving Pakistan anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopters, missile boats, corvettes, surface-to-air missiles, and combat aerial drones.

The ASW helicopters are able to detect and hunt down enemy submarines hidden underwater.

Defence ministry sources said Chinese naval officers were recently spotted training their Pakistani counterparts on the new weapons at Wuhan Naval Base.

China is also building Pakistan a forward operating base at Gwadar Port in Pakistan's Balochistan. And setting up a VLF (very low frequency) communication station at Karachi port. The VLF station is expected to help Pakistan communicate with its submarines.

India is currently buldingsixScorpene-class submarines.

The third of them, the Karanj, was launched in January this year but the pace of India's defence modernisation, compared to China-aided Pakistan's, has been slow.