At a ceremony held at the Istanbul Naval Shipyard in Turkiye, the Pakistan Navy officially commissioned PNS Khaibar (F-282), the second heavy corvette of the Badur class, whose design is derived from the Ada class (part of the MILGEM program). The commissioning ceremony was attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as the chief guest, along with the Chief of the Pakistan Navy, Admiral Naveed Ashraf.
The contract signed between the governments of Pakistan and Turkiye provides for the construction of a total of four Badur-class heavy corvettes, based on the Ada-class design of the Turkish Navy’s MILGEM naval construction program. To date, with the commissioning of PNS Khaibar, the Istanbul Naval Shipyard has completed the construction and delivery of the first two units of the program. Meanwhile, the remaining two corvettes are under construction at Pakistani shipyards, as part of a technology transfer and industrial cooperation framework agreed upon by both countries.
The first unit delivered was PNS Babur (F-280), commissioned in September 2023, while the second, recently inducted, is PNS Khaibar (F-282). At the same time, Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works (KSEW) is progressing with the construction of the remaining two units, Badr (F-281) and Tariq (F-283), which were launched in May 2022 and August 2023, respectively. Although no additional details were provided during the commissioning ceremony of Khaibar, the third and fourth corvettes are expected to be delivered and commissioned into service in 2026 and 2027, respectively, as work continues on the superstructure and systems integration.
Finally, the commissioning of PNS Khaibar represents another milestone in the modernization efforts of the Pakistan Navy, marking the completion of the Turkish shipyard construction phase of the new Badur class while industrial shipbuilding capabilities continue to be consolidated in Pakistan. With this step, Islamabad advances its objective of modernizing its surface fleet, ensuring a more robust presence in the Indian Ocean and other areas of strategic interest, as part of broader efforts undertaken in cooperation with other countries in addition to Turkiye—most notably the People’s Republic of China, with which Pakistan is also pursuing the modernization of its submarine fleet.
Cover image used for illustrative purposes.
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