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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (39793)	8/25/2002 12:31:32 PM
From: Eashoa' M'sheekha	Respond to of 281500

Pakistan launches locally built submarine Updated on 2002-08-25 11:28:16 KARACHI, August 25 (PNS): Pakistan Navy on Saturday launched the second of the three Agosta 90-B Class submarine built in its navel facility for six months of sea trials. The submarine is equipped with four bow torpedo tubes and missiles and its fighting capacity co-ordinated by the French-made Submarine Tactical Integrated Combat System (STICS). "Sixty percent of work on the Agosta was completed by Pakistani engineers while for the rest, services of French technicians were acquired. It will be tested for six months in high seas," Chief of Navel Staff, Admiral Abdul Aziz Mirza told journalists after the launching ceremony of the submarine at the Karachi dockyard. The vessel was manufactured at the Pakistan naval shipyard by local shipbuilders with the help of French marine engineers. "Pakistan has started talks with China for the purchase of four warships F22, out of which one would be built in China while the rest would be manufactured by Pakistani engineers indigenously with the help of Chinese engineers," he said. "Pakistan has joined the elite club of few countries around the world who can make submarines," Mirza said. Construction of Pakistan's second Agosta 90-B began in 1998. It has been named as the "SAAD" (Saad Bin Waqas). To a question, the Navel Chief disclosed that the submarine has the capability of firing a SM39 missile, which can mount any kind of nuclear device. "After the induction of Agosta, the number of submarines in Pak Navy would reach to eight," Mirza said. He said that the third submarine would be built by the end of 2003. To a question about the suicide bomb attack on the French Engineers, the navel chief said, "French engineers are fully co-operating with us." "Although most of the engineers had left the country after that attack however, they provided every kind of assistance to our engineers through fax, phones, mails and other means for the completion of the project successfully," Mirza said. The French staff of Agosta project were pulled out of Pakistan after the September 11 attacks on the United States, but some had returned earlier this year to assess the security situation. "For Pakistan it is a major step forward on the road to (defense) self-reliance." The Agosta 90-B has been designed to operate as an anti-submarine, anti-surface and intelligence gathering and is also capable of diving deeper than 300 meters (about 1000 feet) with a maximum sprint speed of 20 knots (40 kilometers per hour). Pakistan's first Agosta 90-B was built at the Cherbourg shipyard of the French government-owned ship-building firm Direction des Constructions Navales (DCN) and was commissioned into service in September 1999. The navel chief disclosed that after the 1998 nuclear explosions by Pakistan, the European Union had attempted to compel Pakistan to stop the project, but the Navy continued its work. Responding to a question about recent stand-off between India and Pakistan, the navel chief said that there is no tension in the seas between the two countries and warships on both sides are in their peacetime waters. To another question he proudly said, "Its not 71s-like situation. Now we can teach the enemy a lesson." Meanwhile talking to reporters, DSN of French Navy, Jan Merry Pomphyouph said that co-operation between France and Pakistan would continue despite the terrorist attack on French engineers. "If certain people had hoped to strain links between France and Pakistan, they were mistaken," he said. "The current agreements will be pursued," he added, referring to a military cooperation pact reached in 1994 for the joint construction of three Agosta 90B class submarines. Eleven members of the French technical team were killed and another 12 injured by a suicide car-bombing in Karachi on May 8. All the dead and injured French citizens were working for the state-owned ship-building firm Direction des Constructions Navales (DCN).