"India will face Chinese-made submarines from Pakistan next year"
"From next year, India will have to face the new submarines built by China for Pakistan" — On the 4th, Indian media "The Times of India" expressed the above sentiment.
The report said that recently, the Chief of the Pakistani Navy, Navid Ashraf, revealed in an interview that the first batch of the Hangor submarines, a Sino-Pak cooperation project, will officially join the Pakistani Navy next year. Earlier this year, the second and third Hangor submarines had already been launched in China.
The Hangor submarine is the foreign trade model of China's Type 039 conventional submarine. In 2015, China and Pakistan signed this military sale transaction, with Pakistan ordering 8 submarines. The first four were built by China, and the remaining four would be assembled by Pakistan under the guidance of China. The contract will be completed before 2028.
The delivery of the Hangor submarines is not good news for India. According to Indian media, an Indian officer admitted that these Chinese-built vessels would enhance Pakistan's area denial/anti-access capabilities in the Arabian Sea, and India "must find a way to respond."
In fact, although India's navy currently has more submarines than Pakistan, in terms of submarine advanced technology and construction techniques, India and Pakistan are roughly equal.
For example, the 8 Hangor submarines purchased by Pakistan this time are all equipped with "Air-Independent Propulsion Technology" (AIP), which allows them to stay submerged for a long time. Although India has launched many conventional submarines in recent years, none of them have adopted this technology.
Previously, Indian media had also admitted that India is the only country in the world that has both conventional submarines and nuclear submarines but does not know how to build them independently.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1847925641608332/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.