The Hydrographer of Pakistan issued NAVAREA IX 414/26 at 281500 UTC on 28 October as an Arabian Sea / Pakistan live-firing warning. The official text puts naval ships conducting live firing practice between 0300 and 1900 UTC on 2–6, 9–13, 16–20, 23–27 and 30 November 2026 in four listed areas. Charts cited are PAK 33, 57 (INT 751), BA 38 and 707. Three boxes are printed as surface and anti-aircraft firing areas. A fourth box is printed as a depth-charge firing area. Mariners are told to keep well clear of the exercise areas. The notice cancels itself at 302000 UTC 30 November 2026. That is the working primary. It is a November firing-box product. It is not a security-incident caution, not a wreck notice, and not this afternoon’s dedicated 411/26 McDermott DB30 pipelay berth off Qatar.
Pakistan’s NAVAREA IX in-force table, as of Wednesday 28 October, lists 414/26 under Arabian Sea / Pakistan, DTG 281500 UTC 28 October, description live weapon firing. The same 281500 UTC clock issued 416/26, the Gulf of Aden possible pirate-action-group keep-clear that wraps tonight’s dedicated UKMTO Advisory 184-26, and 415/26, a self-cancelling housekeeping notice that cancels NAVAREA IX 559/25, 032/26 and itself. Those two are wrap on other files, not second primaries for this piece. Masters who brief Wednesday night as a Hormuz Attack, as a Karachi port closure, or as a rewrite of 411/26 will have merged a month of Pakistan firing windows into the wrong series.
What the warning actually printed
The hydrographic text is short. DTG 281500 UTC OCT 2026. NAVAREA IX 414/26. ARABIAN SEA. PAKISTAN. CHARTS PAK 33, 57 (INT 751), BA 38 AND 707. Naval ships will conduct live firing practice between 0300 to 1900 UTC from 02–06, 09–13, 16–20, 23–27 and 30 November 2026 in the following areas. Surface and anti-aircraft firing areas: A. 24-24.30N 066-42.00E, 24-19.00N 066-58.00E, 24-00.00N 066-39.00E, 24-11.00N 066-27.00E. B. 24-36.02N 062-30.03E, 24-36.02N 063-15.03E, 24-21.02N 063-15.03E, 24-21.02N 062-30.03E. C. 24-36.02N 061-45.03E, 24-36.02N 062-30.03E, 24-21.02N 062-30.03E, 24-21.02N 061-45.03E. Depth-charge firing area: D. 24-22.00N 066-27.00E, 24-16.30N 066-33.00E, 24-10.30N 066-27.00E, 24-16.18N 066-20.50E. Mariners keep well clear of exercise areas. Cancel this message 302000 UTC November 2026. That is the product. The coordinator printed neither a unit name, a ship name, a firing-run heading, a no-go inside the polygons, a VHF working channel, a security radius, a projectile, nor an attacker. Stay with the four corners of each box, the 0300–1900 UTC daily window, the November date groups, and the 30 November 2000 UTC cancel.
The geometry is three separate problems, not one circle off Karachi. Area A sits on the Pakistan near-coast firing ground south-southwest of Karachi, on BA 38 / PAK 33 waters roughly between 24-00N and 24-24N, 066-27E and 066-58E. Area D, the depth-charge box, is nested on the western side of that same coastal ground, between 24-10N and 24-22N, 066-20E and 066-33E. Areas B and C sit much further west, as two adjacent rectangles along 24-21N to 24-36N: C from 061-45.03E to 062-30.03E, B from 062-30.03E to 063-15.03E. That western pair is open Arabian Sea, on the order of 200 nautical miles west of Area A, on tracks that eastbound Gulf of Oman traffic and westbound subcontinent traffic actually use. Do not brief 414/26 as a single Sonmiani box. 409/26, the Sonmiani live-firing product issued 270350 UTC 27 October, already self-cancelled at 271200 UTC 27 October and is not this notice.
Same-clock wrap, not this berth: 415/26, 281500 UTC 28 October, cancel NAVAREA IX 559/25, 032/26 and this message. That is a two-line housekeeping cancel. It does not move a firing box, name a hull, or extend 414/26. 416/26, issued on the same DTG, remains wrap on tonight’s dedicated 184-26 Gulf of Aden PAG piece — 12-42N 047-35E, cancel 032359 UTC 3 November — and is not an Arabian Sea firing product. 413/26, issued 271945 UTC 27 October, remains a northern Gulf / Kuwait live-firing box for 0300–0900 UTC on 28 and 29 October, self-cancelling at 291000 UTC 29 October. 412/26, the AHTS Accomplish 350-metre floating-hose tow, self-cancelled at 282300 UTC 28 October and is no longer a standing warning unless a later NAVAREA reprints it. 411/26 remains this afternoon’s dedicated Qatar pipelay berth through 26 November.
What this is not
This is not a security-incident NAVAREA and not a wreck product. 389/26, the Gulf of Oman oil-tanker security-incident caution on the dedicated Petro Dolphin / two-missing Sohar file, remains in force. 352/26 remains a Strait of Hormuz oil-tanker security-incident caution. 410/26 cancelled 373/26, 403/26 and 404/26 and then itself; those three last-known plots stay residual hazards on this morning’s dedicated cancel piece. 414/26 does not restore them, does not survey them, and does not sit in the Musandam or Sohar offsets.
This is not Advisory 184-26, not Update 109, and not JMIC Advisory Note 016-26. 184-26 is tonight’s dedicated Gulf of Aden PAG Advisory. Update 108 remains last numbered periodic JMIC note, ICOD 251300 UTC 25 October, Hormuz SEVERE. 016-26, dated 28 October, is a separate blockade visit-and-search advisory. The IMO highlighted-incidents board is still 121 confirmed / 24 seafarer fatalities as at 27 October. 414/26 names no tanker from that board.
This is not a Karachi, Port Qasim or Gwadar closure, not a Hormuz TSS change, and not a rewrite of 411/26. It is not 343/26, the earlier Arabian Sea / Pakistan live-firing product still listed on Wednesday’s in-force table from 291500 UTC 29 September. Do not cancel 343/26 on the strength of 414/26 unless a later NAVAREA says so. It is not 397/26, the Port Muhammad Bin Qasim buoy relaid, and not 390/26, the Karachi-approaches buoy top missing. Those remain their own in-force lines.
Operational implications
For a master running the north Arabian Sea on BA 38 / BA 707 between 2 and 30 November, 414/26 is a passage-plan amendment before it is a navy-exercise story. The daily window is 0300–1900 UTC, sixteen hours, on five separate November blocks, not a one-afternoon shoot. Night transits after 1900 UTC are outside the printed window; daylight and evening transits are inside it. Area A and Area D sit on the Pakistan coastal firing ground that subcontinent and Gulf traffic already treats as a keep-clear when a Sonmiani or Karachi notice is in force. Areas B and C are the ones that catch east-west Arabian Sea tracks well offshore. A voyage that only offset inshore to stay off Area A has not offset the western pair at 061-45E to 063-15E. The notice says keep well clear. It does not print a 2 NM berth, a VHF working channel, or a named guard ship. That is a wider, quieter keep-clear than this afternoon’s dedicated 411/26, which at least gave Channel 12 and 16 and a two-nautical-mile figure around a named barge.
For DPAs with Port Qasim, Karachi, Gwadar, Fujairah-to-west-coast, or Gulf of Oman-to-Malacca stems in November, the operational question is which November days the ship is in which box, not whether Pakistan “closed the Arabian Sea.” The date groups are 2–6, 9–13, 16–20, 23–27 and 30 November. Weekends and the gaps between those blocks are not printed as firing days on this notice. Do not invent firing on 1, 7–8, 14–15, 21–22, 28–29 November from 414/26. Do not assume the western rectangles are idle because the ship is “only going to Karachi.” Area C’s western edge at 061-45.03E is on the approaches a master uses when coming out of the Gulf of Oman toward the Indian west coast. Chart BA 707 and INT 751 belong on the passage-plan pack with PAK 33 / 57 and BA 38. Cancel 414/26 in the NAVAREA folder at 302000 UTC 30 November, not at the end of the last firing afternoon on 30 November at 1900 UTC. The cancel is two hours after that last window.
For charterers and P&I, Wednesday night is a November Arabian Sea CPA-and-delay file, not a war-risk conversion. 414/26 does not close Karachi. It does not reopen Hormuz. It does not cancel 411/26, 413/26 or 416/26. A fixture that only budgeted this afternoon’s Qatar pipelay berth, or tonight’s Gulf of Aden PAG watch, has not budgeted sixteen-hour firing windows on twenty November days across four polygons. 413/26 still has a few hours to run, until 291000 UTC 29 October, in a northern-Gulf Kuwait box that is not this product. 412/26 is already past its 282300 UTC cancel. Those clocks are separate.
Do not recast 28 October as a Pakistan exclusion zone inside the four polygons, a named-unit casualty, a rewrite of 409/26, a rewrite of 411/26, or a Hormuz product. The confirmed facts are NAVAREA IX 414/26, 281500 UTC 28 October, four areas, 0300–1900 UTC on the listed November days, keep well clear, charts PAK 33 / 57 (INT 751) / BA 38 / 707, cancel 302000 UTC 30 November, with 415/26 as housekeeping wrap and 416/26 sitting on the 184-26 file.
What Operators Should Note
- Log 414/26 as a November firing product, not as a security caution. NAVAREA IX 414/26, 281500 UTC 28 October. Arabian Sea / Pakistan. Charts PAK 33, 57 (INT 751), BA 38 and 707. Live firing 0300–1900 UTC on 2–6, 9–13, 16–20, 23–27 and 30 November 2026. Keep well clear of the exercise areas. Cancel 302000 UTC 30 November 2026. This is not Advisory 184-26, not Update 109, not 411/26, and not a Karachi port closure.
- Plot four boxes, not one Sonmiani circle. Surface and anti-aircraft A: 24-24.30N 066-42.00E / 24-19.00N 066-58.00E / 24-00.00N 066-39.00E / 24-11.00N 066-27.00E. B: 24-36.02N 062-30.03E / 24-36.02N 063-15.03E / 24-21.02N 063-15.03E / 24-21.02N 062-30.03E. C: 24-36.02N 061-45.03E / 24-36.02N 062-30.03E / 24-21.02N 062-30.03E / 24-21.02N 061-45.03E. Depth-charge D: 24-22.00N 066-27.00E / 24-16.30N 066-33.00E / 24-10.30N 066-27.00E / 24-16.18N 066-20.50E. A and D are the Pakistan near-coast ground. B and C are the offshore Arabian Sea pair. 409/26 already cancelled at 271200 UTC 27 October and is not this notice.
- Carry the 0300–1900 UTC window and the 30 November 2000 UTC cancel. The last printed firing afternoon is 30 November 1900 UTC. The NAVAREA cancel is two hours later, 302000 UTC. Gaps between the date groups are not printed as firing days. The coordinator printed no VHF working channel, no named guard ship, and no numeric berth. Keep well clear is the whole instruction.
- Keep tonight’s PAG watch and this afternoon’s Qatar berth on their own files. 416/26, 12-42N 047-35E, cancel 032359 UTC 3 November, wraps 184-26. 411/26 remains the DB30 two-nautical-mile pipelay berth through 26 November. 413/26 remains the Kuwait box until 291000 UTC 29 October. 412/26 cancelled at 282300 UTC 28 October. 415/26 only cancels 559/25 and 032/26.
- Leave 410/26 and the residual wreck plots on this morning’s cancel file. 373/26, 403/26 and 404/26 are withdrawn cautions, not surveyed wrecks. 389/26 Petro Dolphin and 352/26 remain in-force security-incident cautions. 343/26 remains an earlier Pakistan live-firing line on Wednesday’s table unless a later NAVAREA cancels it. 397/26 and 390/26 remain buoy products, not firing boxes.
- Karachi, Port Qasim, Gwadar and Hormuz are not closed by this notice. North Arabian Sea traffic through 24-00N to 24-36N now carries four polygons and sixteen-hour windows on twenty November days. Watch a later NAVAREA that extends, cancels or buoys 414/26 — not a completed shoot, not a named-unit casualty, and not a Hormuz rewrite.
Regulas Shipping will keep lining NAVAREA IX 414/26 against the same-clock Aden PAG keep-clear and this afternoon’s 411/26 pipelay berth so operators can treat the November Pakistan boxes as a four-area, sixteen-hour keep-clear through 30 November, not as a port closure, a security wreck or an IMO rewrite.
