In the 1990s KSEW received technology from France for building the Agosta 90B Khalid class submarine. The technology was mostly related to construction of the pressure hull and out-fitting of the submarine. Drawings, computer aided design tools and more than 20,000 technical documents from France were transferred. Training programs for 300 engineers and technicians took place in France and another 600 personnel were trained in Pakistan. In 1995, surveys and upgrades to naval dockyard infrastructure were carried out by French personnel which included a section building hall, combined outfitting workshop, pipe-bending workshop, hull fabrication workshop, grit blasting and painting facility, dock lift system and a pickling and etching plant. The third Agosta 90B submarine, PNS Hamza, was constructed with the newly developed MESMA air-independent propulsion unit, while the first two (PNS Khalid and PNS Saad) will be retro-fitted during their next overhauls with a "plug" containing a MESMA AIP unit. The submarine's hull will be cut and the plug inserted. The second MESMA unit was shipped in June 2011.
The next submarine project will see KSEW jointly involved with Chinese company CSOC (China Shipbuilding & Offshore International Co. Ltd.) in the design and construction of six submarines equipped with air-independent propulsion (AIP). These will be designed to Pakistani specifications and four will be built at a CSOC shipyard in China, while two will be constructed by KSEW. It is believed that little upgrading of facilities is required because much of the current infrastructure meets the requirements. The preliminary negotiations were reported to be completed in March 2011. It was earlier believed that the project would involve China's Type-041 Yuan class submarine, which had been mentioned by Admiral Noman Bashir, Chief of Naval Staff, several times since 2009.