According to the agreement signed in September 2018, Turkey will build four corvettes for Pakistan Navy (PN). Two of the ships will be built at the Istanbul Shipyard Command, and the other two will be built in Karachi, Pakistan. In the first stage, one corvette, each built-in Istanbul and Karachi, will join the Pakistan Navy inventory in 2023. The other two ships will enter the inventory in 2024. The production process will take 54 months on the first ship, 60 months on the second ship, 66 months on the third ship, and 72 months on the last ship.
ASFAT A.Ş. top management, Pakistan Embassy Naval Attaché Masher Bashir and Pakistani Navy Rear Admiral Ehsan Ahmed Khan from Istanbul Shipyard, Turkish and Pakistani officials attended the ceremony.
The first ceremony for the first of the two corvettes produced in Turkey was held at the Istanbul Shipyard Command on September 29, 2019. “1. The Ceremony of Laying the Ship’s Backbone “was held on June 3, 2020, at the Istanbul Shipyard Command.
In January 2021, the first welding ceremony of the 3rd MILGEM Corvette was held.
Following the second ship built in Turkey for Pakistan, the process will begin in Pakistan for the last ship of the same series.
GE Marine announced that it had signed a contract with STM to supply LM2500 gas turbine engines that will power PN MİLGEM corvettes.
ASFAT and STM signed a contract on June 16, 2020, to supply the Main Propulsion Systems of the ships. The LM2500 gas turbine engines will be manufactured at GE’s facility in Evendale, Ohio, USA.
