Today we are looking at the Hangor class diesel electric attack submarines. They are the future
submarines of the Pakistan Navy and being built jointly by China and Pakistan. The Hangor class
is a modified version of the Chinese Type 039B submarine, a version that is designed for export.
Just to be aware, because the Hangor class is under construction, most of the photos in the
video will be the Chinese Type 039B. A total of eight submarines are expected to be delivered
to the Pakistan Navy between 2023 and 2028. In the early 2000s, the Pakistan Navy was seeking
to expand its submarine force, which at the time consisted of 5 of the French Agosta class.
The Agosta class, while capable, was designed in the 1970s, and its systems and weapons are
becoming quite old, and the Navy was in need of new submarines. Pakistan approached France,
again, and Germany. The French decided not to sell Pakistan its new Scorpene class diesel submarines,
because they were already been sold to India, and France was trying to pursue a closer relationship
with India. Germany was more open to sell Pakistan the Type 214 submarine, but this deal as
eventually scrapped as well, due to a shortage of public funding in Pakistan as a result of the 2008
Global Financial Crisis. Starting in 2011, as the economy recovered, the Navy renewed its effort
to acquire new submarines, and this time it has the option of going to
an increasingly close and powerful ally, China. In October 2015, the Pakistan Government announced
a final decision to purchase 8 new submarines from China. This was an important agreement for the
Pakistan Navy, which has not seen the same amount of investment as the Pakistan Army and Air Force.
The deal was also important for China, as one of the country’s largest weapons
export deals to date. Both China and Pakistan have been officially silent about the specific
class of submarines being considered, but little snippets of information here and there
point strongly to the Chinese S-26, which is an export version of the Type 039B.
According to NATO, they are called the Yuan class. The Type 39B is one of the most advanced diesel
attack submarines in the Chinese Navy – they have air independent propulsion, or AIP for short,
making them far more stealthy on long voyages than traditional diesel boats.
The contract includes 8 submarines – four of them are to be built in China, most likely in Wuhan
along the Yangtze River, where the vast majority of Chinese diesel submarines were built. The other
four boats will be built in the Karachi Shipyard in Pakistan. The first boat can be expected
to enter service as early as 2023, and the last one in 2028. They will be named the Hangor class.
We know some details about the basic parameters of the submarines. The Pakistan version of the
S-26 is slightly different to the standard S-26 advertised by China Shipbuilding Trading
Corporation, for example they will be larger. The Pakistan version of the S-26, or the Hangor class,
is expected to displace 2,800 tons submerged, slightly more than the 2,550 tons of the standard
S-26. The Hangor class is 76 meters long, 9 metres wide, with a draught of 6.2 meters.
The top speed is 18 knots underwater, slightly slower than the 20 knots of the Yuan class.
The maximum diving depth is 300 metres. The boat should feature rescue capsules,
to increase the survivability for the crew in case of emergency.
The propulsion system has not been finalised, but it is likely to be Chinese engines.
My own assessment is that the diesel engines will be the same as that on the Type 039B,
which I believe are three of the Shaanxi diesel engines, that are a licensed or reverse engineered
version of the German MTU 16V396 marine engines. The AIP system should also be the domestic
Chinese Stirling engine developed by the China Shipbuilding and Industry Corporation in 1998.
The engines should be powering a single shaft with one asymmetrical 7-bladed skewed propeller.
By the way, if you enjoyed our video so far, please press the like button. As a bit of context,
there has been some complications in the diesel engine for the Hangor class. The original plan
was to install German diesel engines from the German company MTU, but the German Government
has not approved the necessary export license, so this most likely will not happen. According
to Indian news reports, the Pakistan Navy does not really want to use Chinese diesel engines,
and really want the German ones, so this could spell trouble for the submarine deal. However,
I have not found any official Pakistan sources saying the same thing. If anybody from Pakistan
knows about the issue the Navy has with Chinese submarine engines, let me know.
China has already demonstrated the ability to build domestic submarine diesel engines
in the construction of both the Type 39 Song class, and the Type 39A and B. So,
the lack of foreign submarine engines shouldn’t logically impact on the submarine performance,
so long as the export customers are comfortable on a psychological level.
As I mentioned before, the Hangor class is expected to have air independent propulsion,
or AIP for short. AIP is essentially an extra power plant that does not require the submarine
to surface or snorkel in order to run. This means a submarine with AIP can remain submerged for much
longer, but at the cost of travelling much slower than on battery power, typically at around 5 to 10
knots. The Stirling AIP engines that are available for sale on the international market tends to be
less powerful versions of the original engines used by the submarine forces of their country
of origin. According to Chinese media, China originally imitated the export version of the
Stirling engine from Sweden in the 1990s, but the Chinese version of the Stirling engine has been
improved over time to have a much greater power output and fuel efficiency than the original,
and also the ones available on international markets. China remains very secretive
about the capability of its submarine technology, but it is fair to say that the AIP used in the
Type 39B is more capable than the performance of the Swedish Gotland class submarines in the 1990s.
While the Gotland class can stay underwater for something like 2 weeks, the Chinese Yuan class
and the S-26 export variant may well be able to achieve 2.5 weeks. In comparison,
a diesel submarine running solely on battery power will need to surface every 2 to 3 days, depending
on power consumption. Basically, the Stirling AIP engine makes the Hangor class stealthier on
longer voyages, because frequency of it having to surface is reduced, and a submarine is of course
most at risk of being detected while surfaced. Armament consists of the standard six
533 mm heavyweight torpedo tubes. They should be able to fire both torpedoes and cruise missiles,
and deploy naval mines. The exact type of weapons is unknown at this time,
but they might be the export version of the Chinese Yu-6 torpedo. They are believed
to be similar to the US Navy’s Mark 48 torpedo. The Hangor class may also use an improved version
of the CM-708 submarine-launched cruise missile, known as the CM-708 UNB, they are an export
derivative of the Chinese YJ-82. This subsonic weapon has a range of 290 km, so it is compliant
with the Missile Technology Control Regime, an international treaty that among other things limit
the range of exported missiles. The Hangor class is not expected to have vertical launch cells,
so it won’t be able to fire cruise missiles in a large salvo. Overall, the weapons outfit
of the Hangor class is not clear at this stage, and it is entirely possible for the submarines
to be modified, to use domestic Pakistani torpedoes and missiles, for example a submarine
variant of the Babur land-attack cruise missile. The Pakistan Navy has not said anything about how
it will configure the Hangor submarines in terms of sonars, sensors and other electronic systems.
In theory, it could equip the Hangor along similar lines to the upgraded Agosta 90B so as to leverage
the commonality in training, integration, and maintenance. However, importing the necessary
equipment from western countries, like France, might be difficult due to geopolitical factors,
and the Pakistan Navy also wants to keep things affordable. So, like the Type 054A/P frigates, it
will probably choose available Chinese sonars, sensors and combat systems for the Hangor.
On the Chinese Type 039B, the standard sonar suite consists of a bow-mounted medium-frequency sonar
for active and passive searching, and a pair of the H/SQG-207 flank sonar arrays for passive
searching. The H/SQG-207 is a line of individual hydrophones mounted to sides of the hull, and is
designed to provide long-range detection against noisy ships. They are most effective in deeper
waters. Lastly, the system is further enhanced with the integration of a domestic Chinese passive
ranging sonar on board, designated as H/SQG-04 sonar. That all being said, the S-26 is much
smaller than the original Type 39B, so the Hangor class may not have the room to accommodate all the
sonar systems of the Type 39B. For example, there might not be the room to include the H/SQG-207
flank sonar, but we will have to wait and see. The Hangor class AIP submarines are important
acquisitions for the Pakistan Navy, in terms of addressing the regional imbalance in maritime
security. If the capabilities of the Chinese Type 39B are anything to go by, the Hangor class
should be very stealthy, and pose a credible deterrence against a numerically superior
adversary. Traditionally, confrontation between surface fleets tends to favour the side with the
greater firepower. But submarines always had the potential to inflict large losses
against a quantitatively superior opponent. The Hangor class should be instrumental for a
smaller Pakistan Navy to maintain an asymmetric balance of power versus a larger Indian Navy.