March 5, 2006:
The Pakistani navy put into service the first two of a new class of missile patrol boats. The 93 foot long, 250 ton Quwwat class boats carry anti-ship missiles and have an excellent fire control radar. The boats have a top speed of over 50 kilometers an hour and carry four Chinese C-801 anti-ship missiles (max range of 42 kilometers and weighing 1,400 pounds each). The C-801 is similar to the French Exocet, and is believed to have been based on that missile. Crew size is about fifty.
The boats were built in Pakistan with the help of Thai shipbuilding firm Marsun, and is meant to correct the defects in the design of earlier classes of missile boats.