SHAH ALAM: Keel Laying Ceremony for Second LCS. Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Seri Johari Baharum officiated the keel laying for the second LCS at the Boustead Naval Shipyard (BNS) in Lumut today.
A year ago – March 8, 2016 – a similar ceremony for the first LCS was conducted at the shipyard. There is no word however on when the ship will be launched although from the pictures of today’s ceremony revealed that more work is to be done on the first LCS.
Interestingly, a Belgium-based news portal Navy Recognition in its report dated Jan. 2. 2017 says this:
Based on the DCNS Gowind 2500 corvette design (also selected by the Egyptian Navy), the Royal Malaysian Navy future LCS will be slightly larger and thus classified as frigates (with a length of 111 meters and a displacement of 3,100 tons). First ship of the class is set to be floated out and lowered in the water via a platform in December of 2018.
I am not sure whether the December 2018 launch date is correct but if it’s true this means that the first LCS will most likely enter service at the earliest in 2020.
Anyhow, with the deputy minister officiating the event and the RMN also represented by the deputy chief – with no disrespect – I doubt we will know much about the program apart from that it was running on schedule. Hopefully, I will get a better update at LIMA 17 as I was unable to go to Lumut today.
Meanwhile, the Sundaily reports that Johari said that the first LCS will be ready by 2019.
Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Johari Baharum said the construction works which started last year is 50% complete and expected to be completed by April 2019 in time for the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (Lima).
“RMN wants the ship to be ready before Lima,” he told reporters after officiating the keel laying ceremony for the second LCS ship at Boustead Naval Shipyard here today
The story above is wierd because the LIMA series exhibition is held in March, since 2013.
It’s also interesting to note that the mast and radome of the Panaromic Integrated Sensor Mast (PISM) for the first LCS is built by DCNS, as tweeted by RMN LCS project team on Feb. 21, 2017.
By the way, the keel laying ceremony is:
Laying the keel, or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship’s construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. A structural keel is a beam around which the hull of a ship is built. The keel runs in the middle of the ship, from the bow to the stern, and serves as a basic foundation or spine of the structure, providing the major source of structural strength of the hull.
*updated to fix the spelling of DS Johari Baharum.
–Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (11)
will the seawolfs missiles of lekiu's be upgraded to sea ceptors?
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No decision has been made on the issue
Sea Ceptors- I would hope for MICA for commonality.
Lol. In the cover picture the enemy aircraft is an F-35, the enemy vessel is an NGPV.
The graphics from RMN has some nonsense words on it.
BTW any hints of the names of the Gowind ships yet??
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Perhaps if I had gone to Lumut today, I might got something. As it is I don't have any hint
3100 tonnes? Same weight with RSN Formidable class
VL Mica vs Sea Ceptor
1. In your opinion which one is best fit for Malaysia?
2. Can the current VL Mica VLS accept Sea Ceptors?
Reply
Aster
@Hilmi
Imo, maybe sea ceptor.
Seems like (might be wrong) a-35 sylver vls can take sea ceptor missile. If the sgpv use the a-35 vls then maybe the navy wont be having that much modification to change from vl mica to sea ceptor in the future.
VL mica is a very good missile. Having both radar n infrared guided homing device does increase chances of shooting down something. But the range and also its aerodynamic performance when it travels more than 7km kinda makes me worries.
As for aster 15, if the navy choose that then the army or air force will be using a different kind of medium ranged sam. As far as i know, there's no land based aster 15 launcher. Only aster 30.
Well this are my thoughts. I might be wrong on many stuffs.
The sources I saw said Sea Ceptor requires A-50 length. I believe this makes sense because Sea Ceptor has a booster, like Aster 15, and its range is closer to Aster 15 than to MICA.
Sea Ceptor will be compatible with ships using Aster and is a great option because it can be quad packed in Sylver unlike MICA and Aster. Likewise it has active radar guidance.
Not sure what launcher was chosen for the SGPV. It's probably A-35 which is the only one that cannot take Aster 15.
Something out of the topic but I hope someone can explain to me.
Malaysia already have the Kedah class as patrol vessel, instead of continue build more Kedah class, why Malaysia go and purchase of China LMS?
@AM
I've read DCNS Sylver's promo material that says A-35 can handle quad packed Sea Ceptors. Sea Ceptors as in CAMM(M) not CAMM - ER.
At 25 km range and quad packed into 16 cell VLS, the LCS would become a very potent AA platform.
But knowing the French - British love hate relationship its unlikely that DCNS would even allow integration of British made missile on French made warship.
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MBDA is also partly French, though yes the CAMM/Ceptors came from the UK part