PNS Ghazi

The Tench-class submarine in the U.S. Navy's service as Diablo in 1964.
History
United States
NameUSS Diablo
BuilderPortsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine, United States
Laid down11 August 1944
Launched1 December 1944
Commissioned31 March 1945
Decommissioned1 June 1964
Stricken4 December 1971
IdentificationSS-479
FateTransferred to Pakistan on 1 June 1964
Pakistan
NamePNS Ghazi
Cost$1.5 million USD (1968) (Refit and MLU cost)
Acquired1 June 1964
Refit2 April 1970
HomeportKarachi Naval Base
IdentificationS-130
Honours &
awards
FateLost during 1971 war with 93 personnel onboard on 4/5 December 1971 in Bay of Bengal in East of Indian Ocean.
General characteristics
Class & typeTench-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement
  • 1,570 long tons (1,595 t) surfaced
  • 2,414 long tons (2,453 t) submerged
Length311 ft 8 in (95.00 m)
Beam27 ft 4 in (8.33 m)
Draft17 ft (5.2 m) maximum
Propulsion
Speed
  • 20.25 knots (37.50 km/h; 23.30 mph) surfaced
  • 8.75 knots (16.21 km/h; 10.07 mph) submerged
Range11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km; 13,000 mi) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Endurance
  • 48 hours at 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) submerged
  • 75 days on patrol
Test depth
Complement
Armament

PNS/M Ghazi (S–130) (previously USS Diablo (SS-479); reporting name: Ghazi), SJ, was a Tench-class diesel-electric submarine, the first fast-attack submarine in the Pakistan Navy. She was leased from the United States Navy in 1963.:68

She served in the United States Navy from 1945 to 1963 and was loaned to Pakistan under the Security Assistance Program (SAP) on a four-year lease after the Ayub administration successfully negotiated with the Kennedy administration for its procurement. In 1964, she joined the Pakistan Navy and saw military action in the Indo-Pakistani theatres in the 1965 and, later in the 1971 wars.

In 1968 Ghazi executed a submerged circumnavigation of Africa and southern parts of Europe through the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, due to the closure of the Suez Canal, in order to be refitted and updated at Gölcük, Turkey. The submarine could be armed with up to 28 Mk.14 torpedoes and had the capability of mine-laying added as part of her refit.

Starting as the only submarine in the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965, Ghazi remained the Pakistan Navy's flagship submarine until she sank under mysterious circumstances near India's eastern coast while conducting naval operations en route to the Bay of Bengal. While the Indian Navy credits Ghazi's sinking to its destroyer INS Rajput, the Pakistani military oversights and reviews stated that "the submarine sank due to either an internal explosion or accidental detonation of mines being laid by the submarine off the Visakhapatnam harbour".

In 2010, it was revealed the Indian Navy destroyed all records of their investigations into this matter in 1980 after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. Nonetheless, Indian historians consider the sinking of Ghazi to be a notable event; as they have described the sinking as one of the "last unsolved greatest mysteries of the 1971 war."