Prepared By: Zohaib Ahmed — Strategic brief Date: 22 Oct 2025 Executive summary Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST), which markets its megaconstellation under names such as SpaceSail , Qianfan (Thousand Sails) and G60 , is China’s most prominent state-backed commercial rival to SpaceX’s Starlink. Backed by Shanghai municipal authorities and national industrial funds, SSST has raised large state-linked capital and already launched multiple batches of LEO satellites. It targets global broadband and has announced ambitious plans (tens of thousands of satellites in some reporting) to scale rapidly through 2030. SSST has signalled interest in Pakistan and there are media reports (local outlets and social posts) claiming company registration activity; however, Pakistan’s national space/telecom regulators are still finalizing licensing rules for foreign LEO operators, so operational entry remains conditional on regulatory approvals. Background & identity Full ...
By Zohaib Ahmed | 17th October 2025 Executive Summary Pakistan’s undersea fleet, once built around the French-origin Agosta-70 and Agosta-90B (Khalid-class) submarines, is now transitioning toward a new generation of Hangor-class diesel-electric attack submarines . The Hangor-class — an export derivative of China’s Type 039A Yuan-class — represents the largest single defense deal between Islamabad and Beijing, signed in 2015. By 2030 the Pakistan Navy (PN) must convert the Hangor-class programme and its associated technology-transfer (ToT) into not just a fleet expansion, but the foundation of a domestic submarine-industrial complex and a doctrinal shift toward persistent, stealthy sea denial. The Hangor-class (Yuan-derivative) submarines — AIP-equipped, modular and export-proven — are Pakistan’s asymmetric trump card in the northern Arabian Sea. Pakistan should mass-produce, iterate, and “weaponize” the platform the way it did the JF-17: standardize the baseline, absorb ToT,...