The Cosmos-class submarine, officially Cos.Mo.S MG-110 locally designated as X-Craft, are the class of

midget submarine A midget submarine (also called a mini submarine) is any submarine under 150 tons, typically operated by a crew of one or two but sometimes up to six or nine, with little or no on-board living accommodation. They normally work with mother ships, ...

s designed by the Italian firm

Cos.Mo.S Cos.Mo.S, officially Costruzione Motoscafi Sottomarini s.a.s, was an Italian submarine and submersible manufacturer. History 250px, Carlos Cardoen meeting with former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein Cos.Mo.S was started in 1954 by Sergio Puccia ...

, in Karachi Naval Dockyard in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

Sindh Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. The Cosmos-class submarines are currently stationed in

PNS Iqbal The PNS Iqbal (also known as Naval Base Iqbal ) is the naval base that serves as the training and operating headquarters of the Navy Special Service Group, having been established in 1966 at the Karachi coast in Sindh in Pakistan. Besides servin ...

and are used as the SDV for the SEAL Teams of the Navy Special Service Group, since 1993. Despite classified as submarine by its builder in Karachi, the Cosmos, nonetheless, fall under the responsibility of the Naval Strategic Forces Command for planning development while the Commander of the Coastal Areas remains in charge for the operational deployments only.

Design overview

Design was initially conceived in 1983–85 in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

for the

COMSUBIN COMSUBIN (''Comando Raggruppamento Subacquei e Incursori "Teseo Tesei"''; Divers and Raiders Group Command "Teseo Tesei") is the Italian Navy's special operations unit. Italy was the first nation to use frogmen and human torpedoes. The Royal It ...

(special forces) of the ''

Marina Militare "Fatherland and Honour" , patron = , colors = , colors_label = , march = ( is the return of soldiers to their barrack, or sailors to their ship after a ...

'' (Italian Navy), which was already operating a large fleet of midget class submarines in their inventory. The Italian firm, Cosmos, had initially

designed A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

for the eight submarines, along with the designs of three for the

Republic of Korea Navy The Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN; ko, 대한민국 해군), also known as the ROK Navy or South Korean Navy, is the naval warfare service branch of the South Korean armed forces, responsible for naval and amphibious operations. The ROK Navy in ...

in 1983. The Cosmos-class submarines are (sources vary with '' GlobalSecurity.org'' noting the length at ) long, and with one propeller that is powered by a diesel-electric engine. The Cosmos are more capable of conducting the operations than their predecessor design, the submarine in 1970s. The submarine range is between at in diving capability and has an endurance of up to twenty days in sea.Massimo Annati, "Underwater special operations craft", Military technology, no. 3, 1996 The Cosmos can launch the Mark 5 torpedo from the standard 533 mm torpedo tubes according to the research paper published by Massimo Annati in 1996 at the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

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. In 1990, the Pakistan Navy entered in discussion with the ''Marina Militare'' (Italian Navy) of procuring these submarines in a view of decommissioning the SX-404-class submarines that was bought from Italy in 1970. The three designs of the Cosmos were originally intended for the export to the Republic of Korea Navy in 1983, which was already seeking the Dolgorae design. In 1990s, Pakistan bought the proprietary designs and had the engineers from the Italian firm, the Cosmos Spa, to re-design and constructed the Cosmos-class submarines in a joint venture with the KS&EW Ltd. at the Karachi Naval Dockyard in

. The KS&EW Ltd. received the production license for the Cosmos for export from her manufacturer and the first ship of her class was commissioned in the Navy in 1993. Two other submarines were entered in service in 1993 and 1996 respectively. The Cosmos serves as the

swimmer delivery vehicle A diver propulsion vehicle (DPV), also known as an underwater propulsion vehicle, sea scooter, underwater scooter, or swimmer delivery vehicle (SDV) by armed forces, is an item of diving equipment used by scuba divers to increase range underw ...

(SDV) for the Navy Special Service Group and were initially under their control until 2005 while stationed at

in Karachi. In 2005, the Cosmos control was given to the Commander Submarines (COMSUBS) for the operational deployments but later the control of the submarines were given back to the Navy Special Service Group under Command of the Coastal Areas (COMCOAST) for operational deployment while its engineering and maintenance remains under the Naval Strategic Forces Command. , there are three Cosmos-class submarines that are active in the Navy as shown below:

References

External links

MG110 Cosmos/X-Craft
{{Pakistan Armed Forces Submarine classes Submarines of Italy Midget submarines Submarines of the Pakistan Navy Italy–Pakistan relations Ships built in Pakistan 1993 in Pakistan Cos.Mo.S