The type of VLS is less important than what its certified for. Sylver and Mk41 are currently the only VLS that CAMM is certified on outside of its own GSW. 26. The MDAS has the capacity to do so but Turkey and Italy need to agree to perform the integration. China and Italy would never agree to it (hence no UVLS as the mainstay). Sylver is a French product and France will never sell this to Pakistan due to indian pressure. Not to mention, its tremendously expensive. But in order to defend against Brahmos (both the fleet and coastal areas) yes PN needs to invest in a surface fleet with higher missile capacity. Best option at itd disposal is CAMM-ER/MDAS combo.
Matching missile to missile is not actually sufficient because Pakistan will need to have 2-3 SAMs missiles per Brahmos it wants to shoot down. If Pakistan doesnt have more SAMs than India has Brahmos you are in real trouble. And that has been a glaring openning in Pakistan's armor for many years. What PN doesnt need to do is match IN ship for ship. I think many have taken this notion a bit too far however to be the same as saying PN doesnt really need to advance it's surface fleet and focus exclusively on sub fleet. Without air defense, the subs will be quickly hunted down by Poseiden and surface ships. And air wings are not enough to provide that for a number of reasons including the fact that aircrat cant defend against brahmos launched from ground and sea. And there will not be enough aircraft for Pakistan to defend Pakistani airspace, ASW/AEWC/Special missions craft, and attack IN with reliability while also launching strikes against India proper. The strategy must be multi faceted air defense from Aircraft, ground and sea based SAMS. Lets not forget that while damage was limited India/Brahmos was able to hit Pakistani airbases during operation Sindoor. The coastal advantage over PN/PAF air defense is far more prominent so PAF bases will likely not be able to launch aircraft unimpeded, so increasing the layered air defense is necessary.
IMHO the Surface fleet(Major Combatants) mission in peace time is for:
Force projection
EEZ Enforcement against strong incursions
Anti Piracy operations if necessary
And Rescue operations if need be.
However, most of the above ops can be be done, effectively, by OPV's that PN has built up.
In wartime the Main Surface Combatant roles are:
Protection of SLOC through:
ASW sweeps (Here PN is weak without an effective ASW HELO)
Anti Surface Sweeps
Interdiction of enemy maritime traffic
Its own Point Defence through SAM/and last ditch CWIS
Essentially an area denial role.
On the offensive side, its role with air-cover might be:
Limited Land Strike with four LAM's per boat.
Surface to Surface strike
Point Defence through SAM/and last ditch CWIS
IMHO these surface groups will not operate without air cover given their current range of SAM's.
Again in my humble opinion, our strike element and sea denial is based upon our sub fleet that really does not require air cover to operate.
In no way I am not a proponent of shore based long range Surface to Surface batteries (Our last layer of defence), littoral combat vessels, Helo based littoral ASW
fleet, Major Surface Combatant, LRMP Squadrons or effective Maritime Interdiction through air refuel able Block III's (Ideally these need to beefed up to three squadrons; two base at Masroor and another at Pasni armed for Anti Ship strike and self defense.
The key to the above is situational awareness in our pond; Arabian Sea and its approaches. This would require dedicated AWACS that currently seems to be in China converting to EW platforms. We need to beef up our AWACS coverage in South with crafts flying out of Turbat along with our LRMP based out of there.
Submarines by the nature and deployment are used for long range interdiction and does not and should not require air cover otherwise it defeats the purpose of a silent killer waiting for the classic ambush.
My 2C Worth
