KARACHI - The Pakistani Navy is constructing a VLF station for strategic submarine communications. VLF, or Very Low Frequency, stations enable one-way communications with submarines operating in deep sea.
Submarine communications tend to be one-way most of the time, because a submarine that doesn't transmit is extremely difficult to detect.
China is working with the Pakistani Navy on the civil works. Work has already begun on the foundation for a 205-foot antenna tower, underground VLF building and power station.
Work has also begun which would allow repair, maintenance and other logistics work to be carried out on Pakistani Navy ships.
Indian military intelligence agencies have reported to Indian media.
Indian intelligence agencies have already reported instances of Chinese submarines hanging around close to the Indian coast and Pakistan coast.
China also recently operationalised a military base in Djibouti, on the coast of the African mainland, at the entry to the crucial Bab-el-Mandeb Strait to the Red Sea.