in early 1990s, Pakistan Navy ahead. I remember reading an article in The Nation newspaper written by a former admiral of indian navy, admitting this. At the current time, india's surface fleet is larger than ours --as is their tech. advantage. Then again, they have much larger shore lines to guard and worry about whereas we only have the southern sector + Gwadar. Because of threat assesment and priorities, navy has traditionally been given least amount of attention.
things seem to be changing now
as we decomission older vessels and are inducting new naval systems and force multipliers, the gap is narrowing.
it is a defensive naval force; therefore, like the other capable services, it aims to have a minimal credible deterrant against the enemy. Given recent procurement and inductions, i'd say we are doing quite well. The best part is that we are inducting systems of Chinese origin, initial batch is being handed over while subsequent one are being assembled locally --and this is creating jobs for many people and this hands-on experience will only serve to broaden our knowledge & skill-sets and maintain our friendships with strategic all-weather allies. As is also the case with other services, our navy works closely with those of other nations apart from China and U.S. --like Turkiye. Turkiye is a NATO country and has access to the prescribed technology as well. We should continue to work closer with them, in the fields of weapons production, mid life updating and also systems procurement (we acquired MRTP33 fast attack gunboats from them, with the large possibility of acquiring the Milgem class corvettes in near future)
we do lag behind hindustan on naval front, however this lag will not be so large over time....
Pakistan is recognized by the world for its liberal and succesful contribution of peacekeepers to UN. We should expand on that and put more emphasis on maritime security (which were are doing now) as well as anti-piracy. This can bring good name to Pakistan and also open up the doors to future deals and joint ops with other countries.
as for naval carrier, this is a capability not required for Pakistan; and the enemy forces' procurement of a naval carrier wont really pose much threat to Pakistani Nation. From what i've read, it would not have a long enough service life to prove worthy (or justify) the exorbitant and ever-rising costs to procure and update it.
Pakistan should put priority on further development of the naval version of the Babur cruise missile. We also need to develop a sea-launched nuclear cruise missile as the indians are currently developing the Sagarika SLBM (proposed range: 700 km) which could tilt the balance more in their favour. An effective response by Pakistan should be put in place, if it isn't being done already.
