Pakistan's Naval strategy: Past and future

Abstract

Over the past fifty years, the Pakistan Navy has developed an effective naval strategy and capability to counter the threat posed by the superior Indian Navy. It has adopted an offensive sea denial strategy that dictates primacy of submarines and maritime aircraft equipped with missiles as the main instruments of waging war at sea. The Pakistan Navy has taken lead in introducing new weapons in the subcontinent aimed at disturbing the naval balance of power. It is now contemplating a nuclear role for itself that aims to challenge the Indian naval ambitions to build a sea‐based deterrent.