The Pakistan Navy does not currently operate a nuclear-powered submarine; its undersea force today is entirely conventionally powered and is in the middle of a deliberate effort to add a new, littoral-focused class that could mark a first step toward indigenous submarine design and production.
The operational requirement: littoral missions and the MG110 legacy
Pakistan’s articulated need for a shallow water attack submarine (SWATS) stems from a simple operational logic: the incoming Hangor-class (S26) — a 2,800‑ton, blue‑water design derived from the PLAN’s Yuan-class — is optimized for open‑ocean reach and endurance, not the constrained, high‑clutter littoral environments off the Makran coast, Karachi, Gwadar, and the northern Arabian Sea. Historically, the Pakistan Navy (PN) has relied on Cosmos MG110 (SX756/W) mini‑submarines — 119‑ton platforms acquired from Italy in the late 1980s and early 1990s and now nearing the end of their operational lives — for special forces and mine‑related roles. The SWATS, by contrast, is being framed as a combat boat: heavyweight torpedoes and potentially anti‑ship cruise missiles (ASCMs), capable of anti‑ship warfare (AShW) and anti‑submarine warfare (ASW) in shallow waters.
STM500: Turkey’s STM as the frontrunner and its published capabilities
Turkey’s Savunma Teknolojileri Mühendislik A.Ş. (STM) is the most publicly associated contender. STM first engaged the PN over a mini‑submarine in 2016, the same year it won a $350 million Agosta 90B mid‑life upgrade contract. STM unveiled the STM500 concept in August 2021, began pressure‑hull test production in June 2022, completed pressure‑hull testing in 2024, and showcased the hull at SAHA EXPO 2024 — a milestone touted as the first time a privately‑owned Turkish company manufactured military submarine pressure hull sections domestically.
The STM500’s published specifications describe a compact combatant: 49 m length, submerged displacement of 700 tons (an increase from an earlier 42 m / 540‑ton concept), dive depth greater than 200 m, top speed exceeding 18 knots, and the ability to sustain 30‑day deployments with a crew of 22 plus eight special‑operations personnel. Weapons fit is notable for the size class: four torpedo tubes able to launch eight heavyweight torpedoes and guided missiles. Roketsan is listed as the supplier of the AKYA fibre‑optic wire‑guided heavyweight torpedo (range exceeding 50 km, speed 45 knots) and a submarine‑launched variant of the ATMACA anti‑ship missile. Propulsion is diesel‑electric with lithium‑ion batteries; AIP is listed as optional.
Alternatives on the shortlist: CSOC, Italy, South Korea
STM is not the only bidder. China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSOC) has offered the MS200, a 200‑ton mini‑submarine with two torpedo tubes, and benefits from an existing Hangor relationship. Italy remains a theoretical option — Italy built the original Cosmos MG110s — and South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (now Hanwha Ocean) is globally experienced in conventional submarine exports, though it has no existing defence relationship with Pakistan. Practical politics and supplier relationships, however, narrow the immediate shortlist to STM and CSOC in Quwa’s assessment.
Industrial logic: SWATS as a pathway to indigenous design at KSEW and MTC
Quwa’s analysis frames SWATS not merely as a three‑boat procurement but as the crucial industrial step that could give Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works (KSEW) and the Maritime Technologies Complex (MTC) substantive design experience. The distinction is between build‑to‑print assembly — KSEW building a foreign design as‑is — and co‑development that transfers engineering capability. The Agosta 90B and Hangor transfers so far have provided local construction and lifecycle work but, Quwa argues, not full design capability. A former Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi, has described the PN’s aim to become a “submarine‑building navy,” language that signals an ambition for domestic design rather than assembly alone.
Quwa lays out a likely sequence: first, a 500–700‑ton SWATS co‑developed and built at KSEW to teach hull design, hydrodynamics, and systems integration; second, a 1,500–2,000‑ton successor to the Agosta 90B incorporating AIP and expanded endurance; and third, a speculative large conventionally‑powered submarine with a vertical launch system (VLS) for Babur‑series SLCMs (as an alternative to nuclear propulsion). Quwa notes Pakistan has no naval nuclear propulsion program and judges that a conventionally‑powered VLS solution is more plausible than an indigenous nuclear‑powered submarine.
KSEW, NHQ, and STM — who will decide and what they will watch
- KSEW: Will need greater construction capacity or subcontracting if a SWATS contract is signed before the Hangor batch completes; capacity allocation decisions will signal whether Pakistan treats SWATS as industrial development or simple procurement.
- Naval Headquarters (NHQ) / Pakistan Navy leadership: Will determine contract structure — build‑to‑print versus co‑development — the single most consequential factor for whether SWATS becomes an enabler of indigenous design capability.
- STM and CSOC: STM’s embedded supplier ecosystem (Aselsan, Havelsan, Roketsan) and prior work with the PN give it a commercial and technical edge; CSOC’s scale and bundling with Hangor support are its competitive strengths.
Three near‑term indicators will show whether SWATS is procurement or industrial policy: a formal contract announcement; KSEW capacity allocation and timelines relative to the Hangor build; and the design scope — whether KSEW and MTC gain design‑engineering roles or merely construction tasks. Those choices will determine if SWATS is an operational stopgap or the hinge that opens a path to an original Pakistani submarine design.
