{"id":1186,"date":"2026-11-02T11:36:40","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T11:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/navarea-ix-424-26-sets-a-3-4-november-firing-box-off-pakistan\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T11:36:40","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T11:36:40","slug":"navarea-ix-424-26-sets-a-3-4-november-firing-box-off-pakistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/navarea-ix-424-26-sets-a-3-4-november-firing-box-off-pakistan\/","title":{"rendered":"NAVAREA IX 424-26 sets a 3-4 November firing box off Pakistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hydrographer of Pakistan issued NAVAREA IX 424\/26 at 011500 UTC on 1 November as an Arabian Sea \/ Pakistan live-weapon-firing warning. The official text, retrieved from the National Hydrographic Office product file, puts live weapon firing scheduled on 3 and 4 November 2026 between 0300 and 0600 UTC in one listed area. Charts cited are PAK 57 (INT 751), BA 38, 39 and BA 707. Mariners are told to keep well clear of the exercise area. The notice cancels itself at 040700 UTC on 4 November 2026. That is the working primary. It is a two-day, three-hour firing-box product. It is not a rewrite of Wednesday night\u2019s dedicated NAVAREA IX 414\/26 November firing boxes, not a security-incident caution, and not this morning\u2019s dedicated Warning 192-26 or NAVWARN 779-26.<\/p>\n

Pakistan\u2019s NAVAREA IX in-force table, as of Monday 2 November, lists 424\/26 as the first row under NAVAREA IX Pakistan, DTG 011500 UTC 1 November, description live weapon firing. The same Monday table still carries dedicated 414\/26 as a separate Arabian Sea \/ Pakistan live-weapon-firing line, DTG 281500 UTC 28 October. 423\/26 remains the 310300 UTC 31 October in-force list. Those are wrap or housekeeping on other files, not second primaries for this piece. Masters who brief Monday afternoon as a Hormuz Attack, as a Karachi port closure, or as a rewrite of 414\/26 will have merged a short 3\u20134 November morning box into the month-long 24-north product.<\/p>\n

What the warning actually printed<\/h2>\n

The hydrographic text is short. DTG 011500 UTC NOV 2026. NAVAREA IX 424\/26. ARABIAN SEA. PAKISTAN. CHARTS PAK 57 (INT 751), BA 38, 39 AND BA 707. 1. LIVE WEAPON FIRING SCHEDULED ON 03 AND 04 NOV 26 BETWEEN 0300 TO 0600 UTC IN FOLLOWING AREA: 25-20.77N 066-06.85E, 25-03.85N 066-31.86E, 25-06.71N 066-52.65E, 25-33.50N 066-17.85E. MARINERS KEEP WELL CLEAR OF EXERCISE AREA. 2. CANCEL THIS MSG 040700 UTC NOV 26. That is the product. The coordinator printed neither a unit name, a ship name, a firing-run heading, a no-go inside the polygon, a VHF working channel, a numeric berth, a security radius, a projectile nor an attacker. Stay with the four corners, the 0300\u20130600 UTC window on 3 and 4 November, and the 4 November 0700 UTC cancel.<\/p>\n

The geometry is one coastal polygon, not the four-box 414\/26 layout. The four corners sit between about 25-04N and 25-34N, 066-07E and 066-53E, on BA 38 \/ BA 39 \/ INT 751 water west-northwest of Karachi on the Makran \/ Hub approaches. That is on the order of 30 to 60 nautical miles north of dedicated 414\/26 Area A, which sits on the Pakistan near-coast firing ground between about 24-00N and 24-24N, 066-27E and 066-58E. 424\/26 does not reprint Area A, Area D, or the offshore western pair B and C at 061-45E to 063-15E. Do not brief 424\/26 as a fifth 414\/26 box. Do not brief 424\/26 as a single Sonmiani rewrite of cancelled 409\/26. 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.<\/p>\n

The clock is the second briefing fact. 424\/26 fires for three hours, 0300\u20130600 UTC, on two mornings only: 3 November and 4 November. Dedicated 414\/26 fires for sixteen hours, 0300\u20131900 UTC, on 2\u20136, 9\u201313, 16\u201320, 23\u201327 and 30 November. Monday 2 November is already inside 414\/26\u2019s first date group. Tuesday 3 November and Wednesday 4 November sit in both products for the overlapping 0300\u20130600 UTC window: 414\/26 is still live through 1900 UTC those days, and 424\/26 is live only until 0600 UTC. After 0600 UTC on 3 and 4 November, 424\/26\u2019s printed firing window is closed; 414\/26 is not. Do not drop 414\/26 because 424\/26 arrived. Do not invent firing on 424\/26 after 0600 UTC, and do not invent 424\/26 firing on 2, 5 or 6 November.<\/p>\n

Same-board wrap, not this berth: 423\/26 remains the 310300 UTC 31 October in-force catalogue. 420\/26 remains Friday night\u2019s dedicated RITI fire-and-anchor at 26-24.07N 056-24.72E. 417\/26 remains Friday morning\u2019s dedicated MSV Quba wreck at 26-19.95N 056-16.82E. 416\/26 remains wrap on dedicated 184-26, possible pirate-action-group at 12-42N 047-35E, cancel 032359 UTC 3 November \u2014 that cancel is Tuesday night, after Tuesday morning\u2019s 424\/26 window. 414\/26 remains Wednesday night\u2019s dedicated November four-box product through 302000 UTC 30 November. 411\/26 remains the dedicated McDermott DB30 pipelay berth off Qatar through 26 November. Those clocks are separate.<\/p>\n

What this is not<\/h2>\n

This is not a rewrite of 414\/26. Wednesday night\u2019s dedicated product remains four areas, 0300\u20131900 UTC, charts PAK 33, 57 (INT 751), BA 38 and 707, cancel 302000 UTC 30 November. 424\/26 adds BA 39, drops PAK 33, uses one polygon around 25N rather than four boxes around 24N, shortens the daily window from sixteen hours to three, and kills itself on 4 November rather than 30 November. A passage plan that only carries 414\/26 has not plotted 25-20.77N 066-06.85E. A passage plan that replaces 414\/26 with 424\/26 has dropped twenty November days and three polygons that 424\/26 does not cancel.<\/p>\n

This is not a security-incident NAVAREA and not a wreck product. 420\/26 remains the dedicated RITI fire-and-anchor. 417\/26 remains the dedicated Quba wreck. 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. 424\/26 does not restore cancelled 373\/26, 403\/26 or 404\/26, does not survey them, and does not sit in the Musandam or Sohar offsets.<\/p>\n

This is not Warning 192-26, not Warning 191-26, and not this afternoon\u2019s companion IMO 123-count. This morning\u2019s dedicated 192-26 remains an unnamed tanker Attack 72 nautical miles east of Ras Al Khafji. Sunday night\u2019s dedicated 191-26 remains an unnamed Hormuz Mayday-relay Attack. The IMO highlighted-incidents board, treated in today\u2019s companion piece, is a Middle East confirmed-incident table; 424\/26 names no tanker from that board. This is not Update 110 and not Update 111. Update 110 remains the last numbered public periodic note, ICOD 011300 UTC 1 November. This is not this morning\u2019s dedicated NAVWARN 779-26 four drifting containers east of Burgas Bay, and it is not Thursday\u2019s dedicated Contship Jet or Khoryv wrecks.<\/p>\n

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, an earlier Arabian Sea \/ Pakistan live-firing product still treated as wrap unless a later NAVAREA cancels it. It is not 397\/26, the Port Muhammad Bin Qasim buoy relaid, and not 347\/26, the Karachi-approaches boat sunk. Those remain their own in-force lines. 416\/26 remains the Aden PAG keep-clear through 032359 UTC 3 November; it is not an Arabian Sea firing product.<\/p>\n

Operational implications<\/h2>\n

For a master running the north Arabian Sea on BA 38 \/ BA 39 \/ BA 707 between tonight and Thursday morning, 424\/26 is a passage-plan amendment before it is a navy-exercise story. The first printed window opens at 0300 UTC on Tuesday 3 November, about fifteen and a half hours after this Monday 1130 UTC desk. The second window opens at 0300 UTC on Wednesday 4 November. Both close at 0600 UTC the same morning. The NAVAREA itself survives until 040700 UTC 4 November, one hour after the last printed firing window. A passage plan that treats 25-20.77N 066-06.85E as a charted obstruction after 040700 UTC without a replacement NAVAREA has over-read a self-cancelling two-morning watch. A passage plan that drops the keep-clear at 0600 UTC on 4 November, before the 0700 UTC cancel, has under-read the notice by one hour.<\/p>\n

414\/26 is still the longer problem. Monday 2 November is already a 414\/26 firing day, 0300\u20131900 UTC, on Areas A\u2013D. Tuesday and Wednesday are 414\/26 firing days as well. 424\/26 does not replace those sixteen-hour windows. For a hull on a Karachi, Port Qasim or west-coast Pakistan landfall, the practical overlay on 3 and 4 November is 414\/26 Area A \/ Area D around 24N plus 424\/26\u2019s 25N polygon for the 0300\u20130600 UTC slice. After 0600 UTC those two mornings, keep 414\/26 in force through 1900 UTC and drop only the 424\/26 firing window. Do not assume the 25N box is idle because the ship is \u201conly going to Karachi after breakfast.\u201d 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 the same quiet instruction as 414\/26, on a different polygon and a much shorter clock.<\/p>\n

For DPAs with Port Qasim, Karachi, Gwadar, Fujairah-to-west-coast, or Gulf of Oman-to-subcontinent stems this week, the operational question is which hours the ship is inside which polygon, not whether Pakistan \u201cclosed the Arabian Sea.\u201d 424\/26 does not close Karachi. It does not reopen Hormuz. It does not cancel 414\/26, 416\/26 or 411\/26. A fixture that only budgeted Wednesday night\u2019s four November boxes, or Sunday night\u2019s Hormuz SEVERE note, has not budgeted a 25N keep-clear for two 0300\u20130600 UTC windows. 416\/26 still has until 032359 UTC 3 November in the Gulf of Aden; that is a PAG watch, not this firing box. 411\/26 remains the Qatar pipelay berth through 26 November. Those clocks are separate.<\/p>\n

Do not recast 2 November as a Pakistan exclusion zone inside the four corners, a named-unit casualty, a rewrite of 414\/26, a rewrite of 409\/26, or a Hormuz product. The confirmed facts are NAVAREA IX 424\/26, 011500 UTC 1 November, one area, 0300\u20130600 UTC on 3 and 4 November, keep well clear, charts PAK 57 (INT 751) \/ BA 38 \/ 39 \/ 707, cancel 040700 UTC 4 November, with dedicated 414\/26 still in force on the same Monday table.<\/p>\n

What Operators Should Note<\/h2>\n