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PAKISTAN NAVY Selects Brazilian Embraer Lineage 1000 Jetliner To Replace Its Ageing Fleet Of P3C Orion Aircraft:
PAKISTAN NAVY has selected the state of the art Brazilian Embraer Lineage 1000 Jetliner to replace its ageing fleet of P3C Orion Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft.
The outgoing CHIEF OF NAVAL STAFF (CNS) Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi confirmed the news on October 6, 2020 that PAKISTAN NAVY would soon replace all its ageing fleet of P-3C Orion aircraft with the 10 ‘Specially Modified and Converted’ Brazilian Embraer Lineage 1000 Jetliner.
The outgoing PAK NAVAL CHIEF (CNS) Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi also confirmed that the first of the Embraer Lineage 1000 Jetliner has already been ordered.
However, CNS Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi refrained from giving the specifics of the exact type of Aircraft ordered by PAKISTAN NAVY for Long Range Maritime Patrol purposes.
According to the details, the first ordered Brazilian Embraer Lineage 1000 Jetliner would be called Sea Sultan.
The main party Embraer also declined to comment on the request. It is still unclear what type of Maritime Long Range Patrol Aircraft has been ordered by PAKISTAN directly by the manufacturer or any 3rd party.
Douglas Barrie, a leading Aerospace Analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies comment as “Using a commercial turbofan engine-powered aircraft as the basis for an ASW [anti-submarine warfare] platform is not unheard of. After all, the U.S. P-8 is a Boeing 737-800 derivative.”
It means that the conversion of commercial aircraft to the Long Range Patrol Aircraft or Anti-Submarine Warfare is not a new thing, as United States also used the civilian derivative of Boeing 737-800 for its P-8 Patrol Aircraft.
However, Douglas Barrie added that converting the civilian Aircraft to ASW or Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft is not so simple as it seems to as there are different challenges involved in the process.
“Not least of all if internal weapons carriage is required where a bomb bay will need to be cut into the airframe,” Douglas Barrie added in the statement.
“[It is a] significant undertaking, and risk management is going to be important. It’s likely Embraer will be asked to help with the conversion, “otherwise the challenges just get all the greater,” he continued.
PAKISTAN NAVY is currently witnessing major expansion and modernization, as several lethal Warships, Frigates, Corvettes have been added to the fleet of PAKISTAN NAVY and several more are still in the pipeline and scheduled to add into PAKISTAN NAVAL Fleet in the next couple of years.
Not to mention that PAKISTAN NAVY is also adding 8 new Type 41-Yuan Class AIP Submarines in its Arsenal under the ‘Project Hangor’. All these submarines would be armed with the lethal Cruise Missiles, Ballistic Missiles and Torpedoes.
Top Defense Analysts are suggesting that with the recent Pace, PAKISTAN NAVY can easily include its name from Brown Water Navy to Blue Water Navy in the near future.
