Navies of China and Pakistan concluded a four-day joint maritime exercise codenamed Sea Guardians-2 held in Shanghai. The two navies also hold drills including attacking at maritime targets, anti-submarine operations, and anti-aircraft and anti-missile operations. The joint exercise aims to enhance defense cooperation, exchange expertise and experience, deepen the traditional friendship between the two countries and militaries, and promote the development of the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership. By teaming up with Chinese vessels and aircraft, the Pakistani warship will get the chance to integrate into the PLA’s combat system and receive real-time battlefield information. This experience will help Pakistan build its own comprehensive combat system, the expert said, citing a report by the PLA Daily, which said the PLA Navy’s early warning aircraft is scheduled to provide situational intelligence and targeting data to the Pakistani vessel in the missile attack drill. While sharing the same general design, the Pakistan Navy’s Type 054A/P is better equipped than its counterpart in the PLA Navy in some aspects, Shanghai-based news website eastday.com reported. The Type 054A/P’s radar system reportedly has longer detection range with additional anti-stealth capability, while its anti-ship missiles have faster speed and longer range. This is because the Pakistan Navy uses the Type 054A/P as its main surface combatant that must be responsible for all anti-air, anti-ship and anti-submarine missions, while the PLA Navy uses the Type 054A as a support ship for only anti-submarine and additional anti-air missions, eastday.com said, as the PLA Navy has larger vessels like the Type 055 and Type 052D destroyers as main surface combatants. It reflects that China’s arms industry can customize its weapons and equipment for foreign customers to suit their demands.
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