Pakistan Navy (PN, Pakistan Bahría) is set to induct PNS Tughril into her fleet on 8th November. The Pakistan Navy ordered four Type 054A/Ps; the last two orders were announced on 1 June 2018. The ships are expected to enter service by 2021. The steel-cutting ceremony for the second Type 054A/P frigate for the Pakistan Navy (PN) was held in China on 19 December 2018, marking the beginning of construction of the vessel at the Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard in Shanghai. The induction of Type-54A/P Guided Missile Frigate class could significantly enhance the service’s anti-air warfare capabilities.
On November 1, 2019, China’s Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding held a steel cutting ceremony for the Pakistan Navy’s third and fourth Type 054A/P frigates. The keel-laying ceremony for the second ship was held on March 23, 2019 at Hudong Zhonghua shipyard in Shanghai. The first Type 054A/P for Pakistan was launched on August 22, 2020. The second one was launched on January 29, 2021. Chinese Hudong Zhonghua Shipyard laid keel of the third Type-054A/P class frigate for Pakistan Navy on 1 May 2021, this hull was launched on 3 August 2021.
PNS Tugril is lead-ship of Type-54A/P (NATO codename Jiangkai II) multi-purpose guided missile frigates manufactured by Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard. PNS Tughril (1951), the former British O-class destroyer HMS Onslaught (G04) acquired by Pakistan in 1951 and scrapped in 1977. PNS Tughril (167), the former United States Gearing-class destroyer USS Henderson (DD-785) acquired by the Pakistan Navy in 1980 and renamed. She was transferred to the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency in 1988 and renamed Nazim. She was decommissioned in 2001.
The Type-054A/P has a different sensor array than the PLAN Type-054A, it is equipped with the SR2410C long-range search radar and the Type 517/SUR17B air surveillance radar. The PNS Tugril carries a PJ-26 76 mm main naval gun, 2×3 Anti-Submarine Torpedo launchers, 2×6 Type 87 Anti-Submarine rocket launchers, two Type 726-4 18-tube decoy rocket launchers and two Type 1130 CIW, 2×4 ASCM launchers armed with the CM-302 supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles, HQ-16 medium-range air defence missiles and Yu-8 ASROCs anti-submarine missiles in a vertical launching system (VLS) system. The Type 054A’s VLS uses a hot launch method; a shared common exhaust system is sited between the two rows of rectangular launching tubes.
