Dr.Syed Mehboob
Political and Economic Analyst
http//: www.thenewslark.com
email: drmehboob.thenewslark@gmail.com
20th December 2025 was a historical day when PNS Khaiber was handed over to Pakistan Navy by a brother Islamic country, our friend indeed, staunch supporter TURKIYE. The whole Pakistani nation is thankful to the brother country, Turkiye.Salute to Turkiye and its leadership.
The whole Pakistani nation heard this news with great pleasure and jubilant that the second Pakistan Navy MILGEM-class, PNS Khaibar, was commissioned at the Istanbul Naval Shipyard on Sunday 20thDecember 2025, marking another milestone in Pakistan Turkiye friendship and defence cooperation.
Turkish President His Excellency Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who attended the ceremony as chief guest alongside Pakistan’s Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Naveed Ashraf, described Pakistan- Turkiye relations as exemplary and emphasized the need for deeper collaboration in defence production. Admiral Naveed Ashraf acknowledged the role of ASFAT, the Istanbul Naval Shipyard and the original equipment manufacturers in the planning, design and construction of the MILGEM-class ships. Admiral Naveed said on the occasion that sustained engagements between the Pakistan Navy and the Turkish Naval forces have strengthened defence collaboration and reflect the enduring strategic partnership between the two countries.
The Turkish president visited the ship, where he was presented a guard of honour and interacted with the crew. During the visit, Erdogan and Admiral Naveed Ashraf exchange views on maritime security in the region and discussed avenues for futures joint initiatives between the two navies. The MILGEM-class ship are among the most advanced surface combatants in the Pakistan Navy fleet, featuring modern command and control systems integrated with advanced weapons and sensor suites.
President Tayyip Erdogan who is equally popular in Pakistan said that the first vessel under the programme, PNS Babur, was handed over to Pakistan on May 24, 2024. The third ship, PNS Badr, is scheduled for delivery by the end of June 2026, while the fourth vessel, PNS Tariq, is expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2027. He further said that the induction of the MILGEM-class ships would significantly enhance the Pakistan Navy’s operational and maritime security capabilities. It is important to mention that the contract for the construction of four MILGEM class ships for Pakistan was signed in 2018 between the Ministry of Defence Production and Turkiye’s ASFAT. Under the agreement, two ships were constructed in Turkiye while the remaining two are being built in Pakistan. The addition of the warship boosts Pakistan’s surface fleet and highlights ongoing technology-transfer cooperation under the bilateral naval programme. PN MILGEM ships are the most technologically advanced surface platforms. These vessels are equipped with the latest command and control systems integrated with modern weapons and advanced sensors,PNS Khaibar is part of the MILGEM (National Ship) programme and is among the most advanced surface combatants in the Pakistan Navy. The corvettes are equipped with modern command-and-control systems, advanced sensors and contemporary weaponry, enhancing Pakistan’s maritime surveillance and combat capabilities.Analysts say the programme reflects growing strategic alignment between Ankara and Islamabad and comes as regional navies place greater emphasis on modernization and securing vital sea lanes.
PNS Khaibar is part of the Babur-class variant of the MILGEM family, a custom configuration developed for Pakistan that scales up the original Ada-class corvette into a nearly 3,000-ton multi-role surface combatant. The Pakistan Navy MILGEM design is around 108 meters long, with CODAG propulsion based on two diesel engines and a gas turbine, giving a top speed above 26 knots, a range of roughly 3,500 nautical miles and an endurance of about 15 days. The ship is armed with a 76 mm main gun forward, twin triple launchers for the indigenous Harbah cruise missile that can be used against both ships and land targets, and a 12-cell vertical launch system configured for modern surface-to-air missiles, giving it a layered engagement envelope out beyond 40 km against aerial threats.Anti-submarine warfare is provided by lightweight 324 mm torpedoes supported by a hull-mounted sonar, while a flight deck and hangar allow the operation of a medium naval helicopter for ASW, surveillance or search-and-rescue missions. In parallel with this weapon fit, the newly commissioned PNS Khaibar is fitted with an extensive suite of Aselsan systems, including a 3D air-search radar, low-probability-of-intercept navigation radar, torpedo countermeasure suite, a 35 mm close-in weapon system and 25 mm remote weapon stations, all integrated through a modern combat management system. This dense sensor and self-defense architecture aims to give the corvette robust situational awareness and the ability to survive in contested littoral environments.
The MILGEM program for Pakistan has evolved over nearly a decade from an initial interest in an off-the-shelf corvette into a broader technology-transfer and co-design project. Negotiations began in the mid-2010s and culminated in 2018 with a contract for four customized MILGEM ships, coupled with what officials described as complete transfer of technology and the transfer of intellectual property rights for the design. Under this arrangement, the first two corvettes, PNS Babur and PNS Khaibar, are built at Istanbul Naval Shipyard, while the third and fourth units, PNS Bedir and PNS Tarik, are under construction at Karachi Shipyard with Turkish support. Beyond simple hull assembly, Turkish partners are transferring design know-how, enabling Pakistani engineers to adapt the MILGEM architecture and to work toward an indigenous frigate class derived from this experience. For Türkiye, the program showcases its ability to handle complex naval exports end-to-end, from design and integration to technology transfer and lifecycle support; for Pakistan, it represents a rare opportunity to climb the learning curve toward independent surface combatant design rather than remaining reliant on foreign material kits.
From an operational perspective, PNS Khaibar gives the Pakistan Navy a compact but heavily networked platform capable of performing anti-submarine, anti-surface and area air-defence missions in the Arabian Sea and wider Indian Ocean. The combination of long-range cruise missiles and medium-range surface-to-air missiles allows the ship to threaten enemy surface units and coastal targets at significant distance while providing protection for its own task group against aircraft and incoming missiles. Aselsan’s close-in weapon system and remote weapon stations provide an additional inner layer of defence against fast inshore attack craft, low-flying missiles and drones, while torpedo countermeasures and advanced sonar strengthen survivability against submarines. The combat management system and associated data-link architecture are designed to operate in a network-enabled environment, fusing data from shipboard sensors, helicopters and other platforms in the Pakistan Navy’s information networks. This high level of sensor integration and electronic warfare capability is expected to significantly increase the fleet’s effectiveness in detection, tracking and engagement, particularly against sophisticated air and missile threats.
The second MILGEM corvette reinforces a pattern in which Pakistan is diversifying its naval acquisitions beyond Chinese and Western suppliers, with Türkiye emerging as a key partner in both capability and industrial development. The handover of PNS Khaibar occurs amid a broader warming of Türkiye–Pakistan relations, marked by high-level visits and coordination on counterterrorism, defense cooperation and wider regional issues, with Ankara consistently expressing political support for Islamabad in key regional disputes. For Pakistan, the Babur-class corvettes complement Chinese-built frigates and other surface assets, forming part of a layered maritime posture in the northern Indian Ocean aimed at protecting sea lines of communication, supporting deterrence in crisis scenarios and enabling more persistent presence operations.
For Türkiye, the program is simultaneously a diplomatic signal and a commercial showcase: projects like MILGEM demonstrate that it is now among a small number of states able to design, build and export modern warships, directly supporting the ambitious defense export targets highlighted by Erdoğan. In a region where naval modernization by India, Gulf states and China is reshaping the balance of power at sea, the emergence of a Pakistan–Türkiye axis in advanced surface combatants introduces a new industrial and strategic variable that other actors will have to factor into their planning.
The MILGEM deal illustrates how Ankara packages hardware sales with long-term economic and technology-transfer components. The overall value of the four-ship program is widely estimated at around $1.5 billion in specialist defence analyses, which link this scale of investment not only to the construction of the platforms themselves but also to the integration of vertical launch air-defence systems and the breadth of design-level technology transfer agreed between the parties. While this represents a higher upfront cost for Islamabad compared with earlier expectations for a more basic configuration, the structure of the agreement is intended to lower life-cycle and follow-on costs by allowing Pakistan to build two of the four ships in Karachi and to use the acquired design rights for future iterations and potentially additional hulls.
The associated transfer of sensor, electronic warfare and communications technologies, combined with joint training and maintenance arrangements, supports Pakistan’s aim to localize a growing share of its naval projects and could cut procurement expenses over time while stimulating domestic employment in shipbuilding and associated industries. For Türkiye, such contracts help sustain its growing defense industrial base, including companies such as ASFAT, Aselsan and Havelsan, and contribute directly to the export figures highlighted at the Istanbul ceremony, reinforcing the narrative of a self-reliant, export-oriented defense ecosystem.
The commissioning of PNS Khaibar as the second Turkish-built MILGEM corvette in Pakistani service marks more than the addition of another modern warship to the fleet; it signals the consolidation of a long-term, high-technology partnership between two non-Western powers that see defense industrial cooperation as both a security instrument and a lever of strategic autonomy. With two ships already in the water and two more to follow, the Babur-class program will gradually reshape the Pakistan Navy’s order of battle, offering a set of multi-role, networked platforms able to operate alongside Chinese, Western and indigenous systems in an increasingly contested maritime environment. At the same time, the project demonstrates how Türkiye is positioning itself as a supplier of complete naval solutions, from hulls and weapons to combat systems and training, at a moment when many states are seeking alternatives to traditional defense suppliers. As PNS Bedir and PNS Tarik move toward delivery and Karachi’s role in construction expands, the MILGEM story is likely to become a reference point for future South–South naval cooperation, with implications that extend well beyond the ceremonial raising of a flag on the shores of the Bosphorus.
