September 14, 2016: In August Pakistan launched its first locally built replenishment ship for its navy. This 17,000 ton vessel is considered a tanker because it mostly carried fuel, in addition to fresh water, food and other dry supplies. The ship was built with the assistance of a Turkish shipbuilding firm. Pakistan currently has two replenishment ships, one built in China in the 1980s and the other built in the Netherlands in the 1990s.

Pakistan did not release many other delays about its new replenishment ship but it appears similar India’s first locally-built replenishment ship. This was the INS Adiyta that entered service in 2000. Construction was delayed several times by technical problems. Adiyta was ordered in 1987 and launched in 1993 but problems with the engines and other equipment delayed completion. Described as a tanker, because over 70 percent of cargo space is for fuel. The rest of the space is for fresh water and dry supplies for other ships. Adiyta displaces 24,600 tons and has a range of 18,000 kilometers at 30 kilometers an hour. Adiyta has four replenishment-at-sea stations while the new Pakistani ship has two.

The new Pakistani replenishment ship will probably be armed with defenses (flares, autocannon like Phalanx) against anti-ship missiles plus a few machine-gun counts for these weapons if needed in port. Top speed is probably about 35 kilometers an hour and endurance about 90 days. There is a large helicopter pad for a medium helicopter (similar to the American UH-60). The new ship is also up to all modern safety specs (like double hull for tankers) and this thus able to enter just about any port in the world to take on new supplies.