PETALING JAYA: I do not believe so. But the lost of KD Pari due to a shaft failure on Thursday culminated a bad month or so for the RMN.
Although, the story below says it was damaged only, it is obvious the FAC-G will have to be de-commissioned soon as repairs would definitely comes into millions. Coming shortly after refit two years ago, it is doubtful the bean counters will allow it to undergo another SLEP.
NST Story here. Its a nice spin of course.
On Aug 31, KD Serang, a Perdana class FAC, caught fire, small one reportedly, after a short circuit while Pari’s sister ship, KD Todak had to be dry-docked after it sailed over a log, damaging its propeller two months ago.
The incidents above illustrated the point that the navy needs new ships fast. With six vessels on the drawing board and no new vessels forthcoming, one wonders what is the best solution for an express re-capitalisation exercise.
Of course, the ex-RBN light frigates and ex-Trinidad and Tobago OPVs came into mind. Yes, they might not be technically right and may come with hefty initial and long term support costs, but the fact remains, we need new hulls ASAP.
But who are we kidding right? Buying second hand things do not excite a lot of people especially those waiting in line to be the next Razak Baginda.
–Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (43)
Not only does it illustrate the fact that the RMN needs new patrol assets, it also illustrates the fact that the RMN is not being given the needed 'tools' by its political masters to meets its heavy comittments and that vessels like the Jerong class are heavily overworked. Apart from a number of overhaul over the years at the Boustead drydock and the DRS-300 ESM, I'm not sure if the FACs have received any other upgrades.
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I believe the boats are all equipped with GPS now. The US Coast Guard also did a SLEP for a class of patrol boats also but these ships ended up being retired faster. Perhaps our boys forgot that underneath the new paint and gizmos is an old ship almost bursting at its welds!
A FAC-Gun trying to shoo away PRC Frigate sounds like a bad idea in the 1st place.
RMN needs to developed better strategy with limited resources to shoo away effectively PRC Frigates from Layang-Layang Atoll.
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One shoo with a FAC, its called intercept and deter if one uses a FFG or DDG
And most definitely new radios to replace the ones that it was delivered with.
Some other news,
http://my.news.yahoo.com/malaysia-mulls-joint-uk-warship-development-043800919.html
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As I said the powers that be loves those big, expensive toys..
After the PCs, the FAC G are THE workhorse of the navy. They are too old and too tired. There are other horror stories that I cannot/not willing to share. Suffice to say that they definitely need to be replace if they were to be tasked as it is now. But there are always other, higher priority items than the need of the armed forces. It's getting ridiculous. As some of you've noticed, even if we do not intend to use force, what the heck can a FAC G do against a PLAN FFG? Lets not forget that PLAN have and still show that they are willing to use force to enforce their claim of sovereignty over the area.
Its embarrassing to see the Admiralty has been reduced to begging just to have enough money to get the navy going. Bet my bottom money that this year budget will see another reduction in defence allocation. Hopefully I am wrong.
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I am siding on the side of a small increase however most of it for development albeit to the detriment of operational allocation...
Maybe we need some of these:
http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-photo/rjdemp/1/1297955536/washtub-boats.jpg/tpod.html
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LOL...there are many options out there but to be honest the fastest ship we can get our hands on to are the ex-Nakhoda Ragams and the modified River class ships. Cost and support issues aside, these ships could be in service within one year. It will take longer if we were to buy Oliver Hazard Perry FFG from the US. We can also take the two 75m training boats being built in Banting for patrol duties but I am not sure they will be ready within 12 months, 24 months is probably more realistic. Another option is to fast-forward the new frigate/LCS. That too will be a minimum of three years.
We are paying the price for not planning and thinking about the future.
How did we have so many shipyards but not a single boat built either for the RMN or MMEA or for that matter police and other agencies?
RMN KD Serang trying to shoo away Chinese ship near terumbu Layang-Layang:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=237940482917861&set=a.180306752014568.39980.137531102958800&type=1&ref=nf
Hello..mana ada crew for OHPs? OverHeadProjector maybe OK.
The simple reason is that nobody will make money, I mean serious Cayenne Turbo n' Bentley Flying Spur, Country Heights bungalow and standing orders at Hermes money if we just build simple vessels to do the job.
Well, petronas is now investing billions in Brunei. Can't we get the nakhoda ragam's with a nice discount as a return?
And there is the option of the Gomduksuri PKX if we still need a newbuild...
With all of this happening, still the political masters look to expensive huge ships with fat kickbacks. Don't they care to leave a legacy of a merdeka malaysia for the future generation?
And all of this happening on our merdeka aniversary makes me very2 sad...
How many patrol boats can be bought for the price of one SGPV/LCS?
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It's a difficult to say since the final price of the frigate/LCS remain unanswered and the fit of the new patrol boat.
I am guessing that a similar vessel like KD Pari would be around RM100 million to RM200 million
>As I said the powers that be loves those big, expensive toys..
that's becoz the foreigners know the game and are willing to pay huge commissions ....
Just look at what Ombak Laut Sdn Bhd got for the scorpenes. Just that juicy commission is more that enough to give the RMN a completely new fleet of PC or OPVs.