Jinnah Naval Base is located at Ormara

Ormara

Ormara is a port city located in the Makran or coastal region of Balochistan Province in Pakistan. It is located 360 km west of Karachi and 230 km east of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea. This port is also mentioned in Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as Oraea.- History :Ormara is an old...

, Balochistan

Balochistan (Pakistan)

Balochistan is one of the four provinces or federating units of Pakistan. With an area of 134,051 mi2 or , it is the largest province of Pakistan, constituting approximately 44% of the total land mass of Pakistan. According to the 1998 population census, Balochistan had a population of...

, Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. Jinnah Naval Base is a Pakistan Naval

Pakistan Navy

The Pakistan Navy is the naval warfare/service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. Pakistan's Navy is responsible for Pakistan's coastline along the Arabian Sea and the defense of important civilian harbors and military bases...

 support marine

Marine (ocean)

Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...

 and naval

Navy

A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...

 research and development

Research and development

The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...

 base which consists of a military airport and a space facility. The facility is under control of the Pakistan Navy

Pakistan Navy

The Pakistan Navy is the naval warfare/service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. Pakistan's Navy is responsible for Pakistan's coastline along the Arabian Sea and the defense of important civilian harbors and military bases...

. 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

Jinnah Naval Base is situated about 240km west of Karachi

Karachi

Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...

 by sea. By land, via the Makran Coastal Highway

Makran Coastal Highway

Makran Coastal Highway is a 653 km-long coastal highway along Pakistan's Arabian Sea coastline. It runs primarily through Balochistan province between Karachi and Gwadar, passing near the port towns of Ormara and Pasni....

 it is 350km from Karachi and 285km from Gwadar

Gwadar

Gwadar also known as Godar is a developing port city on the southwestern Arabian Sea coast of Pakistan. It is the district headquarters of Gwadar District in Balochistan province and has a population of approximately 50,000.Gwadar is strategically located at the apex of the Arabian Sea and at the...

. The work on selection of site for this naval base commenced in 1990. The contract was awarded to Turkish

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 company STFA and Jan De Nul

Jan De Nul

Jan De Nul Group is a family-owned Belgian company, with the financial headquarters in Luxembourg, that provides services relating to the construction and maintenance of maritime infrastructure on an international basis. Its main focus is dredging , which accounts for 85% of the turnover...

 of Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 for offshore and land development in December 1992.

JNB Space Facility

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

Spaceport

A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching spacecraft, by analogy with seaport for ships or airport for aircraft. The word spaceport, and even more so cosmodrome, has traditionally been used for sites capable of launching spacecraft into orbit around Earth or on interplanetary trajectories...

 is unclear and unknown. However, according to science sources in Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

, it is believed that a spaceport was constructed by joint teams of scientists assembled from SUPARCO, NDC

National Defence Complex

The National Development Complex , is an aerospace and defense agency of the Ministry of Defence of Government of Pakistan, located in Fateh Jang, Punjab Province of Pakistan. The NDC was founded in 1990 by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission chairman, Mr...

, and DESTO

Defence Science and Technology Organization

The Defence Science and Technology Organization, best known as DESTO, is a defense science and technological sciences government agency of Pakistan Defence Forces located in Rawalpindi, Punjab province of Pakistan. DESTO is an independent science and defence research organization, known for its...

 collaborating closely to construct a spaceport at the naval base to test fire Pakistan's sounding rocket

Sounding rocket

A sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The origin of the term comes from nautical vocabulary, where to sound is to throw a weighted line from a ship into...

s as well as power thrust rockets into space.

On June 1999, Kahuta Research Laboratory led by Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan

Abdul Qadeer Khan

Abdul Qadeer Khan , also known in Pakistan as Mohsin-e-Pakistan , D.Eng, Sc.D, HI, NI , FPAS; more widely known as Dr. A. Q...

, the JNB Space Facility was used to test fire a liquid-fuel power thrust rocket

Liquid rocket propellants

The highest specific impulse chemical rockets use liquid propellants. This type of propellant has a long history going back to the first rockets and is still in use, for example in the Space Shuttle and Ariane 5.-Early development:...

 Ghauri

Ghauri (missile)

The Hatf V, named Ghauri , is a medium-range ballistic missile developed by Kahuta Research Laboratories of Pakistan. Powered by a single stage liquid fuel rocket motor, the missile has an optimum range of 1,500 km and can carry a payload of 700 kg...

-series ballistic missle. 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

Space technology

Space technology is technology that is related to entering, and retrieving objects or life forms from space."Every day" technologies such as weather forecasting, remote sensing, GPS systems, satellite television, and some long distance communications systems critically rely on space infrastructure...

.

Observatory

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 protect and heavily guarded by the members of Pakistan Marines

Pakistan Marines

The Pakistani Marines , are the Marine Corps and amphibious corps service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The Pakistani Marines are a special military operations service branch of the Pakistani Navy and part of Pakistani Armed Forces, responsible for providing force projection from the sea,...

. The primary aim and mission of the observatory to produce Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) for the Pakistan Navy and Ministry of Defence

Ministry of Defence (Pakistan)

The Ministry of Defence , is a federal government ministry tasked with coordinating and supervising all major government agencies and federal departments of the government relating directly to National security and the Pakistan Defense Forces...

(MoD).

External links

• http://nti.org/e_research/profiles/Pakistan/Missile/3294_3318.html
• http://www.paknavy.gov.pk/jbase.htm