SHAH ALAM: Happy eighth birthday LCS. Today (December 3) marked the eighth birthday of the first LCS – Maharaja Lela – as the first steel was cut on this day in 2014 at the premises of the IHC Metalix company in Amsterdam, Holland.
As Malaysian Defence reported previously:
Of course someone could also rightly claimed that the LCS actual birthday is Dec. 17 as it was on this day that the LOA for the six ships was signed in 2011. If one choose this date, the LCS is already ten years old (11) then. Or she would be five years old (sixth) if one used as the launch of the keel of the first LCS – Maharaja Lela – on March 8, 2016 .
Of course, today is not a day for celebration as Maharaja Lela and her five sister ships remained incomplete at the Boustead Naval Shipyard (BNS) in Lumut. The RMN is prepared for the resumption of the project but I guess we will have to wait and see what the PM10 administration do with it. Malaysian Defence opinion on the matter is clear though.
With no clear indication of the cost of the total project and the deadline for completing the ships, Malaysian Defence prefers the option of putting the equipment already bought on another hull. The Ada-class corvettes comes into mind.
One way forward for the government in completing the LCS – if it doesn’t want to scrap the project – is to award Naval Group with a contract to build a single ship to the specifications of the Maharaja Lela. If this could be done expeditiously, we will know for certain that the five ships at Lumut could be completed although not on budget and deadline. It was the correct way to do it back in 2011 (getting Naval Group to complete the first ship), if not for the sake of national interest.
— Malaysian Defence.
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View Comments (5)
Marhalim - ''It was the correct way to do it back in 2011 (getting Naval Group to complete the first ship), if not for the sake of national interest.''
Sorry. National interests yes but the politicians [the current Deputy PM amongst them] were also flushed with hubris and the system failed miserably when MINDEF and bureaucrats from other places failed to protect the interests of the end user and taxpayer. Have we learnt? Doubt it. Defence will continue to be something we're not serious about and something well part of the system of patronage; irrespective of who's the Defence Minister or who comprises the Cabinet.
National interest?. National interest is making sure all 6 ships were being completed. Its not national interest to build locally but cannot complete even 1 n having spent RM6 B. Should have built all 6 overseas like LMS.
It's the inverted, national interest. Whenever national interest is mentioned here it's always the exact opposite of the meaning
I have a gut feeling that Tok Mat will gut the LCS project and put the equipment bought on another hull as Marhalim puts it. That or built 1-2 ships based on the Gowind design and the rest gutted to make way for another 2-4 LCS from another company. Tok Mat has been known to do the unthinkable when he was N9 MB. (He deemed building Rumah Rakyat or RPR at the given [then] unfeasible prices and no longer allowed further building of such houses later under his administration)
But we'll see what happens...
If they want to cancel the LCS they should have something immediately to replace it. No point being like M109 saga, where it was cancelled but no alternatives and just left hanging for the 3-4 years and still waiting. That certainly doesn't help anyone's interests except the politicians that will trumpet it as their act to "save" money but in reality we became poorer for it.