SHAH ALAM: Gading Marine it appears is the builder of the 13 Fast Interceptor Craft or Fast Combat Boat (FIC/FCB) announced by the RMN earlier this year. A model of the FIC Batch 2 is displayed at the RMN booth at DSA 2022 with the designation of FIC G2000.
It doesn’t look much different from the current FCB/FIC already in service apart from the fact that it has a ramp at back allowing for RHIB to be stowed and deployed from there.
It is armed with three machine guns, two on a pintle mount on the stern deck and one above the cabin mounted on a remote mount.
It is unclear whether it will be equipped with the RWS as the current one in service are not equipped with them.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (5)
The RCWS could be GFE and not in the contract.
BTW what is the main mission for these FIC? What are the main things that they are going to intercept? Can these ships be used to intercept adversary naval forces? If used as FCB, then its main function is to ferry around soldiers in littoral settings. Will it be attached to PASKAL units as their ride?
Are these to replace, or to add to the current CB90?
Looks interesting. If they could shape the cabin silhouette to be stealthy, it could be a good platform for rapid insertion & exfil of special forces RHIB boat.
Don’t 😆 laugh, but could the Defence Dept consider Crowdfunding for defence procurement? Maybe a GoFundMe page or something. Maybe even a PJK or some medal for big donors. I am not joking...in this day and age, anything is possible and worth considering.
gonggok - "Can these ships be used to intercept adversary naval forces"
Depends on what type of "adversary naval forces" doesn't it and the operational.context. Quite often they do not come face to face with foreign naval forces during routine patrols but do commonly come across foreign fishing boats and smugglers.
gonggok - "If used as FCB, then its main function is to ferry around soldiers in littoral settings"
Similar roles to the CB-90s. Supporting PASKAL; routine coastal surveillance; based on certain reefs to provide a transport and patrol capability, etc.
@Tom Tom
But will it be successful? With our rakyat apathy towards defence matters I doubt it would be as great a success as that PH 'Go Save 1MDB' donation drive.
Hey that gave me an idea, maybe if PH played it up like they did with 1MDB and went around seeking money, it might get the same great response and get us the millions RM that would benefit ATM. Yeah, that might work. Come on PH, let's do it!