SHAH ALAM: India offers Malaysia ship building collaboration. The New Straits Times is reporting that India is prepared to offer its fast-expanding ship-building technology to Malaysia and other countries.
It is also keen to collaborate on oceanic research concerning marine life, the weather, environment and natural disasters. Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia Mridul Kumar said that India had achieved tremendous sales of its indigenously built vessels to Africa, Middle-East and Asian countries.
From NST.
“We wish to share our technical and engineering expertise in the field of security, defence and maritime industries, for the mutual benefit of other nations.
“And Malaysia is most welcome to participate in possible joint-venture programmes in ship-building, just like we share technical knowledge and training in a lot of other aspects,” said Mridul, adding that India also wanted to collaborate on oceanic research.
He said this after hosting a reception on board the visiting oceanographic accoustic research vessel INS Sagardhwani at the National Hydrography Centre in Pulau Indah.
As you are probably aware, India is building most of its vessels at its own shipyards – some from its own design – for its navy and coast guards. It had also donated some of these vessels to other countries though based from the above it is likely want to sell them to Malaysia.
With the APMM and even the RMN looking to augment their fleet – if and when the government wants to fund them – perhaps we could look at Indian shipyards for our future vessels. Unlike China, it is unlikely we will have problems putting military grade stuff from foreign vendors to these ships.
One of the most interesting vessels build by India is the L&T shipbuilding 98 meter OPV known as the Vikram class in Indian Coast Guard. L&T Defence was awarded a $210 million or $30 milllion per vessel contract to build seven Vikram class OPV for the Indian Coast Guard in 2015. Three of the ships are already in active service with the Indian Coast Guard.
I am aware the Damen OPV being built by THHE Destini JV is a much better looking ship though it is more expensive than the Indian ship. Perhaps if we built more of the OPV the price could get cheaper
— Malaysian Defence
View Comments (30)
Pucuk di-chita
Ulam mendatang...
What we could do for MMEA is
6ea of DAMEN OPV1800
then
6ea of Vikram class OPV
plus the transfer of
6ea of Kedah class MEKO 100 OPV
18 large OPVs plus 3ea of large offshore rescue vessel
https://www.malaysiandefence.com/apmm-plans/#comment-317387
A total of 21 large patrol vessel for MMEA.
The total cost of 6 DAMEN OPV1800 plus 6 Vikram class is only about USD500 million. That is about the same cost as 1 gowind plus 1 LMS68!
If spread for 10 years we can more than afford those ships. So it is just a matter of political will. Investing the USD500 million will reap billions of ringgit worth of fishing, oil and gas, tourism income annually
No need to reinvent the wheel or rather finding alternatives to what we already have. If we can build the Damen's, then by all means we should just stick with it.
The ones from India that interest me are MKI spares compatible to MKM, BrahMos too, T-72 spares compatible to Pendekar, and if they locally make 2A46 gun barrels we should consider it. As for non-military, its no rocket science to go learn about their rocket science. Not like we're building an ICBM or anything like that.
If we accept the offer from India to utilise its technology; several factors will be at play; in addition to the government agreeing to make the needed investment and committing to it. A lot will depend on the level of bilateral ties with India (whether we want to improve things) and the long term benefits that collaboration with the Indians will have on the local shipbuilding industry.
Another factor is China. The Chinese will say they can offer us what India (a Chinese strategic competitor) is offering. They will say they can match the price; as well as share technology and shipbuilding techniques. Given that it’s China and that were very economically tied with China; we won’t be in a position to simply shrug off a Chinese proposal.
It would be great if we bought stuff based on price and suitability but unfortunately there is always the political angle.
Comparing the Vikram and the Damen, the Vikram doesn't seem to have as much enclosed space and the gun is further back reducing its field of fire.
Dont know how reliable Indian shipyards are either, given that they can sink their own submarine... and they were a fair choice as an independent 3rd party unconnected to any political problems, until recently. Who knows if the ZN issue might get in the way.
Given my choice I'd pick to do something with SK. They're dependable and cheap both.
India is China strategic competitor? Nope.
The bulk of chinese military might is situated in the east where real threat are (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and by extension, UN pacific fleet). Meanwhile, other than border garrison between india/china, most of the their western forces is geared towards domestic security to deal with xinjiang and tibet. This means that China already had india under control with its proxies (Pakistan) and it's just a matter of time until bangladesh and sri lanka also fall into the fold and subsequently encircle and contain india's influence
That and considering that india manufacturing capacity is about 1/10 of China, there's no way they can compete other than through direct deal with government, something previous government got flak for
Of course there will always be a political and diplomatical aspect of this. Something as a nation that is in the middle of other larger nations we need to juggle.
IMO buying or accepting defence equipment from regional powers is something we need to do. This will present us to them as a friendly and thrustworthy gesture. So things from china, india, japan and south korea must be taken into account for our defensive posture.
How to juggle this? My opinion
China - LMS68, MR SAM, 155mm lightweight howitzers.
India - OPV, naval systems
South Korea - ATGM, MANPADs, LCA/LIFT
Japan - submarine lithium-ion battery technology, ground based radar, ships.
Back to the OPV. Lets compare prices.
Damen OPV1800 - USD53 million
L&T Vikram class - USD31 million
China P18N OPV - USD48 million
The P18N is based on the thailand Pattani class OPV
http://defensenigeria.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/2450293_img2081dzps74d1d2bf1_jpeg05cefd348bed530dbac193c0b1bb81a3.jpeg
So for MMEA OPV, no issue to get both damen and L&T OPVs. The L&T OPV gets us cost effective ships plus diplomatic points with India.
As for ZN. He really has stepped too far and has dishonoured our hospitality to him. Time to show him the door before his toxic ways poison our unity.
@Azlan
Working with India is just going to anger Pakistan, whom we have deeper defence relations having bought many hardware from them. I'll bet you that India's offering is just another powerplay between them since the latest Kashmir conflict exploded. We should consider their offer with caution and lots of salt.
@ joe
We have deep defence relations with both pakistan and india.
Buying coast guard ships from india? No reason for pakistan to be annoyed by this.
Reply
Pakistan will be annoyed due to the current situation.
@dundun
They do have border dispute with China actually, the last in 2017.
India constantly maintains that its military requirements includes the patrolling of a 2-front border, although they probably don't expect to fight a 2-front war, they are cognizant of the fact that in "peacetime" they are operating in 2 theatres, just like we are (Peninsular and East Malaysia).
@joe
Possible. As we all know, military trade is about buying allies too; they could be sucking up to us so we abandon the Pakistanis. And Malaysian money going to their MIC would be money not going to Pakistani MIC.
Or possibly they are looking at fulfilling dock capacity.... or maybe, bulatkan jawapan yang sesuai:
A) I, II and III
B) I, II and IV
C) III and IV
D) Semua di atas