SHAH ALAM: Keel laying and Steel cutting ceremony for LMS. Defence Minister Muhammad Sabu was on hand to witness the keel laying and steel cutting for LMS 1 and 2 at Wuhan, China today.
The keel laying is for the first of class LMS while the steel cutting was for the second vessel.
The ceremonies were held on the first day of Muhammad’s four-day visit to China. As you are aware the RMN is getting four LMS with two of the vessel constructed in China while the other two will be build at the Boustead Naval Shipyard (BNS) in Lumut under a technology transfer program.
The keel of the first LMS. Mindef.
The steel cutting for the first LMS was conducted on July 31. According, to the Defence Ministry, apart from the LMS factory visit, Muhammad is scheduled to attend the Eight Beijing Qiangshan Forum to be held in the capital city Beijing.
Muhammad with other guest at the ceremony.
Muhammad is scheduled to present a speech entitled Terrorism Threats and Countermeasures on Oct. 25 at the forum. During the visit, the minister is also scheduled to meet with high ranking Chinese defence officials to further boost collaboration between both countries.
Muhammad being shown the steel cutting for the second LMS.
The minister visit to China coincided with the start of the inaugural Asean-China Maritime Exercise. Seven ships are taking part in the exercise in the waters off Zhanjiang, China. During the exercise the participating ships will apply the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES) to conduct search and rescue ops.
Sailors from Asean and China at the opening ceremony of the exercise. Singapore Mindef.
RMN only sent observers for the exercise as it is also involved in the trilateral Aman Youyi 2018 being held between Malaysia, Thailand and China. The exercise which focus on peacekeeping operations and enforcement is being conducted starting from today in and on the waters off Port Dickson.
Soldiers from Malaysia, China and Thailand posed for a group picture after taking part in a live firing exercise at Port Dickson. The soldiers faces are blurred as they are Special Forces operators. Joint Force command.
Some 1,417 personnel from the three countries are involved in the execise. China has the biggest personnel with 785 with two ships – a destroyer and a frigate – and two naval helicopters while Malaysia is represented by 585 personnel, two ships and two helicopters with 93 soldiers from Thailand also taking part.
–Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (29)
Judging by the picture, that Chinese shipyard look very modern. I thought it would look more like Bousted shipyard. Maybe I'm just a little bias toward China. Still overprice ship.
Curious. Do we know what specs, armament, or a confirmed layout of these LMS? Unlike LCS, we don't seem to have much info on them.
Yes, the yard looks very modern. Looks even more advanced than many yards in Europe. Definitely, much more modern than any shipyard in Malaysia.
Joe,
I believe a Chinese CMS (JARI-CMS?) with a low/medium altitude search radar (most probably operating on X band) and an EOD. Also an ESM.
Weapons will most possibly be either a 30mm or 37mm auto gun as the A gun and 2 manual 12.7mm HMG at the back. No missiles though. Essentially a gunship with a FFBNW arrangement for SSMs.
joe,
Marhalim has reported on this before. The RMN has publicly stated that these ships will enter service fitted only with guns. The rest will come at a later date, if at all. From a RMN perspective, the idea is to have new ships into service ASAP to perform various peacetime duties that are currently being performed by ships well past their retirement date.The fact that these ships will initially only be armed with guns [Chinese ones] is secondary and is something the RMN is willing to live with. As cash is an issue it was planned to get various Chinese components fo the 4 ships.
The main problem with doing this is that although it leads to short term savings, in the long run there will be penalties. We'll have to create a separate shore support infrastructure and the Chinese stuff will have zero commonality with we we already have - this defeats the purpose of the 15/5 which - amongst other things - is intended to reduce the RMN's logistical footprint. Another problem is that if a Western CMS, radar or other stuff are selected; these will have to be integrated with the Chinese gear - time and money needed. With a change in government however it remains to be seen if Chinese gear will be bought.
Api69 & Meh,
How does one define ''modern'', especially from just looking at 2 pics?
I've been in BNS once [and the Swan Hunter yard in the 1990's] and from the one pic posted here of the Chinese yard; BNS doesn't look ''more advanced'' or ''more modern''. Sure, we can speculate that the Chinese yard has better or more advanced equipment than BNS but we can't determine that by the 2 pics.
Not sure why people would imagine that a Chinese shipyard is anything like a Malaysian shipyard. Remember that at this point, the Chinese are capable of building aircraft carriers, while the Great Russian Bear cannot. In fact if there's any arm of the Chinese military which is making real leaps and bounds in technological development, it is their Navy.
Nonetheless, I believe that this LMS is another mistake, leading to yet another rojak fleet phenomenon, despite TLDM's best efforts.
As such I hope that this (as usual) overpriced LMS can stop at a 4-ship class, and we'll just re-tender for another LMS that uses more common equipment and is cheaper. Then pump out as many of those as we need.
Maybe these LMSs can eventually be refitted to use more common weapons etc too.
" The RMN has publicly stated that these ships will enter service fitted only with guns."
Yes, but what guns? 20mm? 37mm? 40mm? 50mm? And how many? And are they slewed via CMS? Which model of CMS or does the ships even have any CMS?
The ships would come with modular containerised system, but which system would they be using? StanFlex? Or does China uses such modular system in their ships?
Nobody seemed able to confirm this unlike the more open specs that was reported for LCS.
On the equipments
https://www.malaysiandefence.com/lms-steel-cutting/#comment-323419
No idea on ESM or CMS as those are mainly internal.
On the equipments
https://www.malaysiandefence.com/lms-steel-cutting/#comment-323419
No idea on ESM or CMS as those are mainly internal.
On my thoughts on the LMS. Still think the LMS68 to be capped at 9 the most and build the LMS-B instead of 18 LMS68.
https://www.malaysiandefence.com/another-perspective-lms-2/