SHAH ALAM: Down to five LCS only. Newly appointed RMN chief Admiral Abdul Rahman Ayob said today that the government has only approved the completion of five LCS only. He was speaking to the media after giving his first message as the 18th RMN chief.
“Originally we were supposed to get six LCS but after we put forward the plans to restart the project, the government reduce the number of ships to five only,” he added. Abdul Rahman said the reduction in ships was made by the government when it decided to continue with the project.
He said the sixth supplementary contract will be signed soon allowing the resumption of the project.
“We hope the project will be carried as soon as possible and the ships will be delivered as on schedule,” Abdul Rahman said without saying when the first ship was supposed to be ready for delivery.
Defence Minister DSU Muhamad Hasan recently said the first ship was expected to be delivered by the third quarter of next year.
Commentary by Malaysian Defence
The reduction to five LCS was in line with what Prime Minister DS Anwar Ibrahim had said about the LCS last August when he was the opposition leader. He was quoted as saying that it was better if the government stopped the sixth phase of the project as it has not started yet. Malaysian Defence had erroneously stated Anwar calling for the cancellation of the whole project when he did not do so. Why five? As work has not started on the sixth ship though the steel for it has already been cut and paid for. The steel is now stored at the Boustead Naval Shipyard (BNS) in Lumut along with the other equipment for the five ships.
It was unclear however whether the reduction to five LCS was made by Anwar as the PM and Finance Minister as the RMN chief did not say it out clearly. The decision to resume the LCS project was made originally by the Mahathir government and later confirmed by the Muhyiddin one. This was further affirmed by the Ismail Sabri administration and now by Anwar himself. I am guessing that the decision to reduce the LCS numbers to five was made by Anwar though. I stand to be corrected, of course.
Interestingly, Abdul Rahman did not say and was not asked whether the government had allocated extra budget for the LCS project. We all know that the RM9 billion ceiling contract will not be enough to complete even five ships. It is not enough to complete even two ships really, as the subcontractors are already owed some RM4 billion already and the government has only some RM3 billion left for the project. We have not been told how much money is needed for BNS yet. During the PAC hearings (some two years ago), BNS stated that the project will cost some RM11 billion, some two billion more than the original cost.
With the latest developments, I am still of the opinion that we should just scrap the whole project and start anew with a new ship programme using the equipment already procured for the LCS (guns, radars, missiles etc), we just need to pay for the hulls and other machineries. Yes, we will be throwing some RM6 billion worth of LCS. But at least we will know when the ships will be delivered.
— Malaysian Defence
View Comments (37)
After all the commotions about the movie, now there will be no ship named KD Mat Kilau (which is supposed to be the sixth Gowind frigate)
Scrapping the Gowind, then go for the Korean Frigate will be a plan that has the highest possibility of being completed on-time (as only Koreans have the mindset to do so). HDC-3100 is a 3,100 ton warship costing around USD 250 mil each. For six, that is USD 1.5 billion or RM6.375 billion (at 4.25 exchange rate). If we could supply most of the weapons, radars, guns on the ship, probably the cost per ship could go down to USD 200 mil each.
But political-wise, i don't see the government going to put BNS under the bus.
As almost all the hardware needed to complete the 6th Gowind is already available, just put out a tender for other shipyards in malaysia to complete the build of the 6th ship. Lets see if other shipyards in malaysia could finish the 6th Gowind in shorter time and less cost than what BNS could achieve. I believe shipyards such as MMHE, Grade One, Labuan, Berjaya Dockyard, Shin Yang etc. all have the capability and infrastructure to build the Gowind.
One of the major cost of shipbuilding is R&D cost thus Korean ship are only cheap if it ordered together with Korean equipment & weapons as there's no R&S cost involved. You started mix & match & it won't be cheap anymore.
Asking other shipyard to complete just the last LCS is risky as the shipyard never goes through a learning curve as BNS did and the risk of late delivery & increase cost will rise.
Most of the weapons nowadays are basically plug and play really, it's not like we are putting a super duper ray gun or something. It's just the 57mm Bofors with a slightly smaller foot print than the 76mm gun usually put on South Korean ships. As for the NSM as long as the data and power cable are installed it will also be good to go. It's the same with the search and fire control radars. The only issue we may have is the CMS as the Koreans may insist on installing a Korean made one like they did with the Philippines. It is a good enough CMS but without Link 16 datalink
Maybe get a 6th ship as a flagship, something around 130 to 140 m?
hulubalang - ''(as only Koreans have the mindset to do so).''
Not the ''mindset''. They have the ready designs; production capacity; manpower, etc.
hulubalang - '' I believe shipyards such as MMHE, Grade One, Labuan, Berjaya Dockyard, Shin Yang etc. all have the capability and infrastructure to build the Gowind.''
I too ''believe'' so but ultimately all have never constructed a naval vessel of that design, displacement and complexity.
Since PMX is in good relation with Erdogan of Turkey, maybe can consider to get the F142 Dearsan frigate for LCS phase 2.
I disagree with scraping the project. Just finish the damn thing and sue this company till they go broke. You know what, I'm so pissed that I'm just waiting for someone to do something stupid at the shipyard and wreck the entire place apart.
How to sue a GLC?
Akmal - ''sue this company till they go broke.''
Brilliant idea. Should we lynch the top management and machine gun the rest too?
As the country's largest naval refit yard; what consequence will it have for the RMN if BNS goes ''broke''? Also; has it not occurred to you that it isn't solely BNS's fault that things went ratshit? Would be easy if we could lay all the blame on BNS but we can't....
Akmal - ''You know what, I’m so pissed''
Before you get ''pissed'' why not look at all the reasons [there are many] why things turned out the way the did; who is responsible and in what way a combination of things/people resulted in shite flying in multiple directions.
Muzz - ''Since PMX is in good relation with Erdogan of Turkey''
You aren't the first to harp on this supposedly ''good relation'' thing. Erdogan has ''good relations'' with a lot of people but ultimately anyone with a serious desire and the funds can buy stuff; don't necessarily need 'good relations''.
Tom Tom - ''Maybe get a 6th ship as a flagship''
And pray tell what is this ''flagship'' supposed to do in parallel with the other 5?
Azlan - "I too ”believe” so but ultimately all have never constructed a naval vessel of that design, displacement and complexity"
I am talking specifically about the 6th Gowind. Right now it is just a big jigsaw puzzle ready to be welded.
MINDEF can float out a tender specifically to assemble the 6th Gowind out of all the available parts. The winner can start building the hull 1st while waiting for BNS to complete the detailed designs. Then just follow the completed design to finish the ship. With this we can compare the efficiency of BNS and other shipyards in Malaysia. No naval design expertise should be involved with building the 6th Gowind. BNS downfall is that they are pushed to do both build and design, with the design part something they have no experience of.
Now with better and improved ringgit exchange rate this year, should there be a comparatively bigger budget for the LCS program when compared to 2022?
No, there will not be any extra budget for LCS even in the next RMK
Marhalim,
I mean to complete the 6th Gowind. Maybe ask BNS they will charge a fortune, but why not ask other shipyards (through tender) in malaysia to complete it? All the pieces and hardware is already there, just waiting to be built.
If you calculate your budget in 2022, the USD exchange rate was 4.6
Now its 4.25 and still going down.
Should there be some additional ringgit left due to less payments (due to exchange rate) for foreign suppliers, Naval Group and what not?