Zulfiquar-class (F-22P)

The Zulfiquar-class frigates, also designated as the F-22P or Sword class, are multi-mission guided-missile frigates built for the Pakistan Navy. The class is based on an updated version of the Chinese Type 053H3 design, incorporating elements from the Type 054 frigate. Following negotiations from 1996 to 1999, Pakistan signed a bilateral agreement with China on 4 April 2006 to jointly design and construct four frigates for a total program cost of $750 million USD, which included technology transfer and six Harbin Z-9EC anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopters. Three of the frigates—PNS Zulfiquar, PNS Shamsheer, and PNS Saif—were constructed in China by Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding in Shanghai. The fourth, PNS Aslat, was built in Pakistan by Karachi Shipyard & Engineering Works (KS&EW Ltd.) and commissioned in 2013. In 2015, the Pakistan Navy contracted KS&EW Ltd. to construct two additional Zulfiquar-class frigates.

The hull design of the Zulfiquar class incorporates radar cross-section reduction features derived from the Chinese Type 054 frigate to reduce radar detection. For anti-surface warfare, the frigates are armed with eight Chinese-built C-802 subsonic surface-to-surface missiles housed in two four-cell launchers. In 2024, a class frigate successfully test-fired a P282 SMASH ballistic missile. The primary gun is a 76.2 mm AK-176M naval artillery system housed inside a Chinese-designed stealth turret. For air defense, the vessels utilize an eight-cell FM-90N surface-to-air missile launcher positioned between the main gun and the bridge. Close-in defense is provided by a Type 730B system mounted on the helicopter hangar, consisting of two seven-barrel 30 mm Gatling guns directed by an off-mount Type 347G radar and an OFC-3 electro-optic director.

Anti-submarine capabilities include two six-cell RDC-32 anti-submarine rocket launchers and two three-cell ET-52C torpedo launchers. The ship's organic Harbin Z-9EC helicopter is equipped with a surface-search radar, a low-frequency dipping sonar, a radar warning receiver, and a Doppler navigation system, and can deploy a single starboard-mounted torpedo. The helicopter's roof antenna functions as a data-link relay to provide targeting data for the ship's C-802 missiles.

The Pakistan Navy operates the Zulfiquar class for air defense, exclusive economic zone patrols, interdiction, and extraction missions. During its transit from China in 2009, the lead ship, PNS Zulfiquar, conducted goodwill visits to Port Klang in Malaysia and Colombo Port in Sri Lanka. PNS Zulfiquar has been deployed under the War on Terror framework. On 6 September 2014, Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent militants and rogue navy personnel attempted to seize PNS Zulfiquar in Karachi to attack US Navy vessels in the Arabian Sea. Pakistan Navy SEALs defeated the attackers, killing ten militants and apprehending four officers involved in the plot.