According to a tweet published by the Turkish Ministry of Defense on May 20, 2022, the third Pakistanese Babur-class corvette was launched during a ceremony attended by the Turkish Minister of Defense, Hulusi Akar, and the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shahbaz Sharif.
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The Pakistanese Babur-class corvette Badr (Picture source: Turkish MoD)
The Babur-class corvette is a class of four heavy corvettes under construction for the Pakistan Navy. This class is designated from the Turkish MILGEM project. The corvette class is heavier and larger than the Turkish Ada-class corvette, also equipped with VLS.
MILGEM project is a national warship program of the Republic of Turkey. Managed by the Turkish Navy, the project aims at developing multipurpose corvettes, frigates and destroyers that can be deployed in a range of missions, including reconnaissance, surveillance, early warning, anti-submarine warfare, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air warfare, and amphibious operations.
As of 2018, the MILGEM project covers four Ada class anti-submarine warfare corvettes and one ELINT corvette, four Istanbul class multipurpose frigates, and TF2000 class anti-air warfare destroyers destined for the Turkish Navy, four Babur-class corvettes for the Pakistan Navy.
The corvette has a length of 108.8 m (356 ft 11 in), a beam of 14.8 m (48 ft 7 in), and a draught of 4.05 m (13 ft 3 in), she can reach a top speed of 31 knots (57 km/h).
As for its anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities, the corvettes feature two 3-cell Mark 32 324 mm lightweight torpedo tubes, along with an anti-submarine helicopter.
The corvettes feature one OTO Melara 76 mm naval gun, one Aselsan GOKDENIZ 35mm close-in weapon system and two Aselsan STOP 25mm remote weapon stations - for providing short-range point defense against both aerial and surface threats.
The PN MILGEM class is equipped with the SMART-S Mk2 passive electronically scanned array (PESA) radar, license manufactured by Aselsan. The SMART-S Mk2 is a three-dimensional, multi-beam, long-range surface/aerial surveillance radar, featuring an azimuth of 360o, with the capability to track both aerial and surface targets - at ranges of approximately 250 km (160 mi) and 80 km (50 mi), respectively.
The class also features the Aselsan ALPER low-probability-of-intercept radar (LPI) - for detecting and tracking both aerial and surface targets. The ALPER features an approximate range of 36 nmi (67 km).
