Pakistan and India have fought three wars over Kashmir, a disputed territory to which both nations insist. Pakistan's prime minister, Imran Khan, recently suggested the countries may be headed toward another. "There may be a potential that two nuclear-armed countries will come face to face at some stage," Khan said at the UN annual summit in September, bearing on the Kashmir conflict. Together, India and Pakistan possess 2% of the world's nuclear arsenal: India is estimated to own around 140 nuclear warheads, while Pakistan is estimated to own around 160. But they're in an race to amass more weapons. By 2025, India and Pakistan could have expanded their arsenals to 250 warheads each, in line with a brand new paper that predicts what might happen if the 2 nations entered into a nuclear war.  "It would be instant temperature change," Alan Robock, an author of the study, told Military news.   "Nothing like this in history, since civilization was develo...

Operation Praying Mantis launched by US Military was an attack on 18 April 1988. This was in retaliation to the attack by Iranian Navy on US guided missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts in which an Iranian mine blew up a hole in US frigate hull.  The operation made US Navy to employ all of its power by destroying half of Iranian Navy. Two oil facilities, three Iranian speed boats, one Iranian frigate and one fast attack gun boat was lost in the operation. This was also the first time that the US Navy used its anti-ship missiles against any adversary after world war 2.    The lessons learned were simple, Iranian Navy could not match the technologically superior Naval force of the US military. To counter this Iran has developed a large fleet of small high-speed boats which can maneuver easily with large guns attached to each one of them. This Iranian strategy is to attack the US Navy in a swamp attack in case it is required to fight in a war. Still the Iranian navy i...

It is a fact that Pakistan Military strategizes on it assets and capabilities. This was evident during the 27th February 2019 operation against the Indian Military when in the broad day light , the PAF aircraft jets pounded the Indian military targets. It is also said that during that raid, the top Indian military commander of Northern command Gen Ranbir Singh was there in the headquarters when it was hit by the Pakistani jets especially the JF 17 thunder and Mirage V. On the very same day, an Indian Airforce Wing commander was caught by the Pakistan army from Kashmir as his plane was shot. The pilot wing commander Abhinandan was captured and taken as prisoner and was taken care of. On the night of 27th February 2019, the Indian National security advisor Mr. Ajit Doval called his Pakistani counterpart Lt Gen Asim Munir and asked him to handover the Indian pilot back to India or else India would bomb Pakistani cities. On this the Pakistan military strategized and selected eight cities...

Pakistan Defence ministry had signed in 2018 a deal with Turkey’s Military factory and Shipyard Corporation (ASFAT A.S) for four MILGEM frigates for the Pakistan Navy. It is expected that these ships will arrive by 2024 with two ships built in Turkey and the remaining two ships to be built in Pakistan. The contract is worth 1.5 Billion US dollars. But the important thing is that this deal will provide the Pakistan Navy to design and have intellectual property rights for this frigate in the future. This will allow Pakistan Navy to built additional frigates of this type at will in the future with the help of ASFAT A.S. MILGEM FRIGATE The reason for the selection of MILGEM frigate was that it contains high tech integrated systems. It has situational awareness to munitions to electronic warfare, with Type 054/A this will become the main stay asset for the Pakistan Navy in the future. Most of the sub systems will come from turkey which has a reason to be selected by the PN...

The Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) was a massive Cold War infrastructure created by the US for its military necessity to track the Soviet submarine threat originating from the North and approaching the US mainland. SOSUS is a chain of underwater listening posts located around the world in places such as the Atlantic Ocean near Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom – the GIUK gap – and at various locations in the Pacific Ocean. The system was supplemented b y mobile assets such as the Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SURTASS) and became part of the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS).  The US secretly recorded continuous undersea noise for many years and limited the access to its defence scientists and naval experts involved in tracking Soviet vessels. It was started in 1949 and towards the latter part of the Cold War, American biologist and environmentalist Roger Searle Payne got access to the SOSUS recordings and ...

To the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), Operation Swift Retort had ‘worked.’ The PAF said it was able to carryout precision strikes against multiple targets across the Line of Control (LoC) while also dissuading a larger and better equipped force from escalating tensions any further. The PAF lauded the effectiveness of its Falcon 20-based electronic warfare (EW) and electronic countermeasures (ECM) aircraft – it specifically noted how the Falcon 20 apparently jammed communications between the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) assets.[1] The PAF also felt that Swift Retort validated its ability to deploy stand-off range weapons (SOW), and manage large-scale air operations. Indeed, for the PAF, Swift Retort was an unprecedented experience in that this operation was its first involving networked assets, long-range guided bombs (SOW) against pre-planned targets and, potentially, as many as 18 to 24 fighters supported by special mission aircraft. But if Operation Swift Retort ‘worked,’ it ...

I n an impressive firepower display, Pakistan Navy Fleet units demonstrated their combat readiness through live weapon firing of anti-ship missiles in the North Arabian Sea. Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi graced the occasion as Chief Guest and witnessed the event along-with Commander Pakistan Fleet Vice Admiral Asif Khaliq and other senior naval officers. Antiship missile fired from an F22 frigate of Pakistan Navy. The spokesperson of the Pakistan Navy said in the statement that warships and airplanes fired anti-ship missiles at sea level which hit their targets accurately. The weapon's firing included anti-ship missiles fired from Destroyers, Fixed and Rotary Wing Aircraft. The missiles successfully hit their intended target. The successful firings have reaffirmed PN’s warfighting capability and combat potential. The Chief Guest expressed his entire satisfaction on the operational readiness of Pakistan Navy and its preparedness to defend ...

The submarine is a small special forces type, measuring around 55 feet long by 7 to 8 feet across. That is a fraction of the size of a regular submarine. Its location and size both point to use by the Pakistani Navy's Special Service Group, known as SSG (N). They are equivalent to the U.S. Navy SEALs and use the 'SEAL' terminology. They have a long tradition of training with the American unit. This category of submarine is called an X-Craft in Pakistani Navy parlance. The term was inherited from the Italian manufacturer  Cos.Mo.S  (commonly written Cosmos) who sold Pakistan two sets of midget submarines in the past. The Italian firm itself borrowed the term from the Royal Navy midget submarines of World War II. The American equivalent to the X-Craft is the Dry Combat Submersible (DCS) now entering service with the U.S. Navy SEALs. t may be intended to replace the Pakistani Navy's existing X-Craft. Pakistan operates three MG-110 X-Craft which were built locally...

On 23 March 2020, the Pakistan Navy’s (PN) Directorate General of Public Relations (DGPR) announced via social media that China Shipbuilding Trading Co. Limited (CSTC) laid the keel of the PN’s second Type 054A/P frigate at the Hudong Zhonghua Shipyard. The PN currently has four Type 054A/P frigates on order, all of which due for delivery by 2021. CSTC started work on the first two frigates in 2018, while the construction of the third and fourth ships in November 2019. In fact, the PN ordered the Type 054A/Ps in two equal batches, with the first order inked 2017, and the second in the summer of 2018. The Type 054A/P displaces at 4,200 tons. It was designed as a multi-mission platform capable of anti-ship warfare (AShW), anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and anti-air warfare (AAW). It currently serves as the mainstay frigate of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), which operates 30 Type 054As. The ships Pakistan is getting are similar to thei...

This article is in series on the Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) modernization goals by 2030. ‘Swift Retort’ was the first – and only – large-scale air operation in South Asia in recent years, and Military news team contends that its outcome will shape much of the PAF’s asset acquisition activities in the 2020s. From the PAF’s viewpoint, Swift Retort validated a number of strengths, such as its ability to accurately hit targets using long-range weapons from 60-120 km away, or deploy a large number of aircraft with several support assets in one mission, among others. However, while Swift Retort may have shown that the PAF is capable of operating as a contemporary or modern air force, it also magnified the need to maintain the supposed edge in those areas. So, for example, if large scale operations can work against India, then it would make sense for the PAF to build the capacity to mount such campaigns more frequently (if not simultaneously). However, it would need a large force...

Though fiscal constraints made it more difficult for the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) to add new combat aircraft and support systems to its fleet, equipment is but only one part to a successful large-scale air operation, such as Swift Retort. The other component is the availability of trained aircrew, effective planning, and a flawless execution. To sustain more frequent – and simultaneous – large-scale air operations, the PAF will need to raise its personnel quality, planning and execution experience fleet-wide. Ultimately, such changes boil down to training and experience. These attributes are not as tangible to the eye as a new combat aircraft, but they are essential to maintaining an acceptable margin of success – and in mitigating loss and failure – of such operations. In contrast to the procurement of new equipment, the PAF has had success in acclimating its personnel to the changes of air warfare through training and multi-national and fleet-wide exercises, such as Anatolian E...