Jinnah Naval Base

Jinnah Naval Base (JNB)
Jinnah Naval Base (JNB)
Agency overview
Formed	1990-92
Jurisdiction	Military Engineering Services
Headquarters	Ormara, Balochistan, Pakistan.; 25°16′N 64°35′E / 25.267°N 64.583°E
Employees	Classified (2008)
Annual budget	Classified
Parent Agency	Pakistan Navy
Website
	JNB home page

Jinnah Naval Base (JNB) is located at Ormara, Balochistan, Pakistan. Jinnah Naval Base is a Pakistan Naval support marine and naval research and development base which consists of a military airport and a space facility. The facility is under control of the Pakistan Navy. The base is named after Pakistan's Founder, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Jinnah Naval base provides administrative offices, light industrial shops, and storage facilities for tenant naval commands.

Geography of JNB [edit]

Jinnah Naval Base is situated about 240 km west of Karachi by sea. By land, via the Makran Coastal Highway it is 350 km from Karachi and 285 km from Gwadar. The work on selection of site for this naval base commenced in 1990. The contract was awarded to Turkish company STFA and Jan De Nul of Belgium for offshore and land development in December 1992.

JNB Space Facility [edit]

The construction of the base began in 1994 and was completed in 2000. According to the NTI, the naval facility at Ormara has been used to flight-test solid-fueled Shaheen ballistic missile-series under development by the NDC. The construction of a space facility is unclear and unknown. However, according to science sources in Pakistan, it is believed that a spaceport was constructed by joint teams of scientists assembled from SUPARCO, NDC, and DESTO collaborating closely to construct a spaceport at the naval base to test fire Pakistan's sounding rockets as well as power thrust rockets into space.

On June 1999, Kahuta Research Laboratory led by Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the JNB Space Facility was used to test fire a liquid-fuel power thrust rocket Ghauri-series ballistic missile. Jinnah Naval Base is a high-powered research facility where Pakistan's prominent military and civilian scientists work and conduct research in the field of rocket and space technology.

Observatory [edit]

The Pakistan Navy's Naval Weapon Engineering Branch (WEB) first established the observatory to conduct basic and applied military astrophysical science research. Known as Naval Observatory, it is the under administrative control of the Navy where its naval scientists and engineers directly report to the Commander Karachi, a Vice-Admiral. The observatory is protected and heavily guarded by the members of Pakistan Marines. The primary aim and mission of the observatory to produce Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) for the Pakistan Navy and Ministry of Defence (MoD).