SHAH ALAM: First LCS by 2025? In his wrap-up speech on the budget, Defence Minister DS Hishammuddin Hussein told Parliament today, that the RMN will take delivery of the first LCS by 2025. As that was the last line of his speech on the issue, it was unclear if it was just delivery or commissioning. Delivery means that the ship is taken out for trials before acceptance into service which is commissioning.
So there is a probability that the PCU Maharaja Lela will be commissioned into service in 2025 or otherwise (as I mentioned before) as the revival project has not been approved yet. Only when the government approved the revival plan, work on the ships could be restarted.
Another angle of the keel of the first LCS, most likely from the bow end when Hishammudin Hussein launched the first keel in 2016. H20 picture
Hishammuddin on the reason why to revive the project:
Well, we can’t look back anymore. What has happened turned out to be a considerable lesson for the Government. For the way forward, the revival plan will be tabled to the cabinet for approval. If approved, the target is for TLDM to take delivery of the first LCS vessel in 2025
Looking at the speech text itself, it is interesting to note that Hishammuddin did not mentioned his own involvement in the LCS project – despite a lengthy brief on the background of it. It is also revealing that he used the reasons behind the delay of the project as stated by the next previous minister, Mohammad Sabu who told Parliament.
pada 29 Oktober 2019 telah menjelaskan 3 faktor yang menjadi punca kelewatan perolehan
LCS:
i. Kontraktor gagal siapkan reka bentuk dalam tempoh
ditetapkan
ii. Kontraktor lewat muktamadkan perolehan sebahagian
peralatan
iii. Kualiti kerja yang tidak ikut spesifikasi
I am pretty sure Hishammudin was glad to accept the findings as it absolved him and others in the Najib administration of the fiasco. Hishammuddin also stated that the decision in 2019 to continue with the LCS project as approved by the PH Government then was agreed upon by the current government (and the previous one). He said they had no other choice to continue with the project as it was an important asset needed by the RMN as well as just as important to the vendors and their workers.
Hishammuddin did not mentioned the RM6.1 billion already spent on the project as one of the reasons to revive it. He also did not revealed what was the revival plan apart that it was an inclusive plan which involved corporate restructuring and fund raising.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (43)
You were on point, nothing much that could be done about it....and I really doubt that government has "learnt" its lesson, time will tell.
As the navy will be without (new) ships for up to 3 years, I am really hopeful that the MMEA plans for new hardware is approved. They have to pick up the slack in terms of patrols.
What an absolute clusterfxxx.
As long as we have programmes heavily driven by political considerations rather than meeting the interests of the end user and taxpayer, nothing will change.
I thought someone said H20 was not responsible for this FUBAR and that he was just along for the ride, and supposedly ini semua salah Zahid wasn't it?
The final price of this project would be interesting and I think might be close to the actual valuation of the project cost.
@ASM
"MMEA plans for new hardware"
MMEA are having problems of their own with the ships under build.
Which part of this line you did not understand?
"and supposedly ini semua salah Zahid wasn’t it?"
The whole idea of having them built here and approving eveything was during a time when Najob was PM and Zahid was the Minister. It's really not hard to understand.
Ahh, I was referring this:
"The fact that building per see started during Hishanmudin’s tenure is of profound unimportance. ..he merely carried on with what had already been fully agreed upon."
But for PH not pinning the predecessor BN Govt for this issue? Something smells fishy or rather, froggy back then. Basically politicians from all sides (PH, PN, BN) are all pushing the blame onto BNS, whether justified or not.
Others....
"What has happened turned out to be a considerable lesson for the Government."
LOL considerable lesson in your grave lah. No matter how big or small the lesson is/was, these people won't learnt anything from it. We wasted 6 more years just to get 1 ship.
"i. Kontraktor gagal siapkan reka bentuk dalam tempoh
ditetapkan
ii. Kontraktor lewat muktamadkan perolehan sebahagian
peralatan
iii. Kualiti kerja yang tidak ikut spesifikasi"
H2O you forgot 1 thing, all of these risks and delays could be reduced if BNS was never selected as contractor to 'design'. From insider source, it was BNS whose been contracted to design drawings for the enlargement of the Gowind. BNS, according to the insider, to begin with, never had that capability in designing and modifying a warship was tasked to do so as their first project. Instead of paying the French to do all the work, they wanted BNS to do it themselves.
@joe
"Basically politicians from all sides (PH, PN, BN) are all pushing the blame onto BNS, whether justified or not."
Well you can also say some PH and PN politicians where BN politicians back then during Najib time so not that surprised.
"he merely carried on with what had already been fully agreed upon."
Which is correct. All the decisions relating to prices, worksharing, schedules, etc ,etc, were agreed upon when someone else was the Defence Minister.
The new Defence Miniiter merely maintained the course.
The MYR6 billion question is, how many will eventually be constructed. 1 in 2025? 1 in 2026? 1 in 2027? 1 in 2028? 1 in 2029? 1 in 2030?
RM3 billion left in the budget, so on an initial RM9 billion budget for 6, does RM3 billion left means only 2 will ever be built?
''these people won’t learnt anything from it.''
Because they have no incentive to; it's soo entrenched in the system; average voter doesn't care and it's a reflection of our defence policy as a whole and the seriousness we take defence.
''H2O you forgot 1 thing, all of these risks and delays could be reduced if BNS was never selected as contractor to ‘design’. ''
As a politician he will cover his ass as well as that of his party comrades. The fact remains the whole programme was the ''vision'' of Najib and Zahid and they did what they did because our highly flawed system enabled it.
''Instead of paying the French to do all the work, they wanted BNS to do it themselves.''
No revelation ... Part of the self sufficiency improve the local industry cloud cuckoo land myth. In the first place the lead ship should have been constructed by Naval Group; enabling BNS to go through a learning curve.