During Operation Sindoor in May 2025, India used a combination of missiles and drones to carry out precision strikes against targets in Pakistan. The highlight was BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, which easily penetrated Pakistan’s air defences, shattering airbases, runways and command posts, forcing the Pakistan Air Force to flee towards bases near the Afghanistan and Iran borders. The IAF had realised in action what Italian air power theorist Guilo Douhet had realised in his 1920 book ‘Command of the Air’-- ‘it is easier and more effective to destroy an enemy’s aerial power by destroying his nests and eggs on the ground than to hunt his flying birds in the air.’

Iran borrowed from this strategy during its ongoing seven-month conflict with the US. It used drones and ballistic missiles to target a dozen US air and sea bases in a wide swath from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arabian Sea. 

Douhet’s words should also haunt the Pakistan Navy which is preparing to induct eight Chinese Hangor class submarines, bought for $4 billion in 2016 under Pakistan’s largest defence deal. The first submarine, PNS Hangor, has already been inducted into the Pakistan Navy, three more are being built in China. Four are being built in Pakistan with Chinese assistance. The submarines will significantly expand Pakistan's underwater warfare capability. This is because submarines are most difficult to detect when they are underwater and on patrol.

The situation changes when they return to port. They have to surface and remain at a naval facility for maintenance, repairs and crew requirements. This makes their protection at naval bases an important part of submarine warfare. Submarines need secure berthing, maintenance facilities, repair infrastructure and protection from attack while in port.

During Operation Sindoor, the Pakistan Navy hid its warships in civilian berths, amid merchant ships, fearing Brahmos missile strikes. This is exactly what they had done during the December 1971 Indo-Pak war when Indian Naval P-15 missiles tore through its surface fleet, sinking a destroyer, minesweeper and destroying a fleet tanker. 

This is where submarine pens become important. A submarine pen is a heavily protected structure built to shelter submarines in a naval base. Such structures are designed to protect submarines from air attacks and other forms of attack when they cannot remain underwater.  During World War II, Germany built massive reinforced concrete submarine pens to protect its U boats from Allied air attacks. The PLA Navy has invested in massive pens for its strategic submarines at its East Yulin Naval base on Hainan Island, not far from where the Hangor was commissioned on May 1, 2026. The Indian Navy has Project Varsha, a series of pens burrowed into a mountain in Rambilli, Andhra Pradesh, to house its strategic submarines.

Publicly available satellite imagery does not show hardened submarine pens at Pakistan’s three main bases-- Karachi, Ormara and Gwadar. Submarines based here become vulnerable to precision strikes during a conflict. 

So where is the Pakistan Navy spending the money meant for civil works? 

The Pakistan Navy has been involved in the development of a Pakistan Navy Sailing Club and Pakistan Naval Farms around Islamabad's Rawal Lake. The projects are spread over 300 acres in the posh Margalla Hills region, and would be worth upwards of $ 2 billion. The projects have been at the centre of a long running legal dispute. The Pakistan Navy Sailing Club was inaugurated in July 2020. The facility is located on the banks of Rawal Lake, around 1,100 kilometres away from the Arabian Sea. 

The facility is more than a simple boating centre. Court records describe a two-storey building with dining facilities, a gymnasium, guest rooms, an indoor swimming pool and Jacuzzi and steam facilities. The Navy has described the facility as a water sports centre rather than a conventional commercial club. It has said that the centre was established following a government directive on developing water sports facilities.

The legal dispute became significant in 2022. The Islamabad High Court declared the Sailing Club and Naval Farms illegal and ordered their demolition. The court also ordered action concerning the land and directed a forensic audit of the projects. However, on September 2, an Islamabad High Court division bench set aside the 2022 judgment. It also cancelled the directions for demolition of the Sailing Club and the proceedings against former naval chief Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi and other officers.

The contrast is difficult to ignore. Pakistan is spending millions of dollars for building clubs and luxury resorts for their military while their most significant existing naval assets are vulnerable to enemy strikes. Without any opposition to the dominant position which Pakistan’s military carries itself on, the irony only serves as a textbook example of misplaced priorities in a grim economy, bordering on bankruptcy.

Savio Rodrigues

Savio Rodrigues is a Research Analyst at Escape Velocity MediaWorks Pvt Ltd and writes for Chakra News on Defence, Geopolitics, National Security. He holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Mumbai.