Yarmook-class (OPV 1900)

The Yarmook class is a group of four corvettes operated by the Pakistan Navy, derived from the Damen Group's Offshore Patrol Vessel designs. Damen signed an agreement with Pakistan's Ministry of Defence Production on 30 June 2017 covering the first two multipurpose corvettes, with construction assigned to Damen Shipyards Galați in Romania. The first pair follows the Damen OPV 1900 design; the keel of the first second-batch ship was laid in 2022, and both later units are based on the larger OPV 2600 design. All four ships were built at Galați.

The corvettes are configured for patrol duties and a range of maritime operations. They carry a helicopter and an unmanned aerial vehicle, with a flight deck aft, and can embark two high-speed rigid-hulled inflatable boats simultaneously, one of 11.5 metres and one of 6.5 metres. Deck arrangements accommodate two twenty-foot equivalent units for mission-specific payloads. Propulsion is CODAD, with four Caterpillar 3516 diesel engines.

Sensor fit centres on the MR-36A I-band surface and air search and track radar. Countermeasures comprise decoy flare and chaff launchers. Armament includes a 30 mm Aselsan SMASH remote weapon station, two 12.7 mm Aselsan STAMP remote weapon stations, two four-cell launchers for the Harbah surface-to-surface missile, and a 20 mm Phalanx Block 1B close-in weapon system. The Batch II ships are both larger and more heavily armed than the Batch I pair, and carry a larger complement.

PNS Yarmook (F-271) was launched on 17 May 2019 and commissioned on 13 February 2020, entering Pakistan Navy service on 13 July 2020. PNS Tabuk (F-272) followed, launched on 3 September 2019 and commissioned on 12 November 2020. Tabuk operated with USS Pearl Harbor (LSD-52) and PNS Azmat (1013) in a passing exercise in the Gulf of Oman on 11 November 2021.

The first Batch II ship, PNS Hunain (F-273), was launched at Galați on 12 September 2023 and commissioned on 26 July 2024 in Romania. PNS Yamama (F-274), the last of the class, was launched on 19 February 2024 and commissioned on 17 December 2024. The four ships are named after the Battle of the Yarmuk, the Expedition to Tabuk, the Battle of Hunayn and the Battle of al-Yamama.

Pakistan Navy officials described the corvettes as force multipliers for safeguarding maritime frontiers and for the service's independent Regional Maritime Security Patrols in the Indian Ocean Region. On 20 July 2024, PNS Yarmook sailed on a maritime patrol mission covering Pakistani ports and shipping during the Red Sea crisis. In April 2026, PNS Hunain rescued 18 crew members from the Panamanian-flagged merchant vessel MV Gold Autumn, which had sent a distress signal 200 nautical miles off the Pakistani coast in the northern Arabian Sea. All four corvettes remain in active service.