SHAH ALAM: Turkish Defence Industry Secretariat announced that the Letter of Acceptance for the Littoral Mission Ship Batch 2 has been handed over in Turkiye today. This means that STM Defence has been awarded the contract to build the LMS Batch 2, Defence Minister DS Khaled Nordin confirmed in a release on the same day.
Three of the ships will be built in Turkiye under the LOA according to the release though it did not identify the shipyards to build them. Khaled who was present at the LOA handing over ceremony, stated that STM has given the commitment to complete the ships in three years and six months. He did not reveal the LOA cost though. Do note that even if the LOA is issued, they could still be finalising the technical details of the ships.
We have held the "Signing Ceremony for the MoU on G2G Procurement for Defence Products between Türkiye and Malaysia" and the "Handing Over Ceremony for the LoA (Letter of Acceptance) of the Littoral Mission Ship (LMS) Batch 2 Project” which will be procured for the Royal…
— Prof. Dr. Haluk Görgün (@halukgorgun) June 10, 2024
Anyhow the release mentioned Roketsan as one of the Turkish companies involved in the project apart from Havelsan and Aselsan, which likely meant that the surface-to-surface missiles will be the Atmaca. Eight Atmaca launchers are fitted on the TCG Kinaliada which visited Malaysia last month. Havelsan will provide the CMS and other equipment, and Aselsan, most of the sensors and electronics.
A model of the LMS Batch 2 was also shown at the ceremony which I initially thought was a generic Ada class version, but upon a closer inspection showed that it was the RMN version as it has the VLS launchers just before the helicopter hangar.
tion id=”attachment_22009″ align=”alignnone” width=”1280″]
Defence Minister DS Khaled Nordin and Turkish Defence Industry Secretariat secretary Prof. Dr. Haluk Görgün with the LOA at the ceremony. [/caption]
Anyhow here is the release issued on social media by the
We have held the “Signing Ceremony for the MoU on G2G Procurement for Defence Products between Türkiye and Malaysia” and the “Handing Over Ceremony for the LoA (Letter of Acceptance) of the Littoral Mission Ship (LMS) Batch 2 Project” which will be procured for the Royal Malaysian Navy.
Malaysia has signed a G2G on MoU Procurement of Defense Products with another country for the first time. We are delighted to be a part of this significant agreement.On this occasion, we were very pleased to host the Malaysian Minister of Defence, Dato Seri Mohamed Khaled bin Nordin, and the Malaysian Delegation at our Secreteriat of Defence Industries.
These significant meetings and agreements not only represent substantial progress in our defense industry cooperation but also herald a new era of strategic partnership between Türkiye and Malaysia.
As the main contractor, STM will construct three ships in Türkiye, designed to meet the requirements of the Royal Malaysian Navy. During the customization of these ships, products from several Turkish defense industry companies, including HAVELSAN, ASELSAN, and ROKETSAN, will be utilized.
I wish for our project, progressing with the strong cooperation and coordination of our defense industry companies, to be successful and serve as a great example.
I congratulate each of our companies, subcontractors, engineers, and institution employees involved in the project.
As we enter the Turkish Century, we are determined to further strengthen our relations by sharing our technology and expertise in the defense industry with friendly and allied countries.
The Turkish defense industry will continue to make history on the global stage.
— Malaysian Defence
Havelsan CMS…so SAM must be Mica or CAMM i guess?
Finally…
What’s the story about him wanting attack helicopter again?
As the Army still has a requirement for it though they prefer the Apache.
No idea…
5 LCS/frigate Maharaja Lela and 3 LMS/corvette Ada. Nice. At least RMN will have 8 new missile armed frigate/corvette. Then, upgrade 2 Lekiu frigate to supplement the fleet and why not give some SLEP to the 2 Kasturi corvette. There will be 12 missile armed frigate/corvette in RMN fleet.
No ASW capability because we do not see any sonar bow,you can make it somehow with seahawk,but it is pity not to be guarded by aselsan antitorpedo hızır system.There is no aselsan areas electronic attack antennas but cenk aesa also may support it,on the top of cenk radar we see aselsan compact ares ES antennas,there is tacan and a radar for helicopters,two satcom x or ku band separetly,interesting configuration.
I suspect the SAM will be the Turkish Hisars like on the Hisar class OPV. That will be the simplest option for this ship.
How do you agree and set the price on a product from a country with such high inflation? Kinda high risk isn’t it?
Will it be totally absent of an ASW capability? Even without any torpedoes, I hope at least there should be a hull mounted sonar installed same as the existing ADA class. Otherwise it’ll be totally blind in regards of surveillance/ detection of whatever lurking underneath.
Well I don’t see where the money is coming from for attack helicopters. If we ever get them I do however that the army looks at getting UASs/loitering munitions to work in tandem with the attack helicopters. Attack helicopters losses in Ukraine. Losses been high but just like how the MBT is adapting to the UAS/loitering munition threat and how technology is rapidly evolving to cope; the same applies to attack helicopters. A major issue is that stuff like Apache is very resource intensive and challenging to maintain.
Its a government to government deal, the risk is much lower.
The Lekius and Kasturis will be retired once the LCS and ADA class are in service. They are already too old to be SLEP nor have the means to be upgraded further. I doubt even the MMEA wants them.
The MMEA needs them like it does a hole in the head. To much of a headache from a sustainment perspective.
Anon,
At this stage in their lives it’s simply not economical to spend more than absolutely needed to keep them operational. There are also technical issues at play. An upgrade should have been done years ago with the Lekius but we’ve missed that boat. Mind the pun.
I dont think it is wise to spend on upgrade of kasturi at least.Lekiu 50 – 50 but i dont think it will worth it also..Kedahs well yes but thats not gonna happen either..So yeah LCS must be completed without anymore hiccup,all 6 if possible..plus that 3 lms
It is likely she will be fitted with sonar but for navigation in shallow waters as with the Ada class ships. Note the ADA class is not fitted with anti-submarine sonar though she is equipped with a Sea Hawk for ASW purposes.
Even the bigger Istanbul class frigate, the follow-on ship after the Ada class, is not fitted with ASW sonar.
“I doubt even the MMEA wants them.”
Beach them onto our SCS claims like BRP Sierra Madre. At least they can continue to serve even after ‘death’.
By right all surface combatants should have a sonar and a pair of triple torp tubes but the tubes are for self defence. If the contact’s in range of being engaged by the tubes it’s also well within range of sending a torp towards the ship. The most effective means of engaging a contact will be a helo.
Interestingly the ”realignment” banner at DSA mentioned the Batch 2 being fitted with a ”drone”.
I think it will be procured later or simply they used the Scan Eagles…
Are there any plans to have more LMSes or just these three?
As for the Lekius, can they be repurposed as secondary combatants or training vessels? The Kasturis are quite old, but I feel there’s still some fight left in the Lekius
We already have reefs. The LST was beached because they had no structure or reef at Thomas Shoal.
The plan as posted previously was three under this RMK and another 5 in the next RMK. Whether or not money will be available is beyond me.
Between LCS and LMSB2 we would have 8 (9 if we’re lucky) frigate sized vessels it wouldn’t make sense to keep both KD Lekiu and KD Kasturi around, especially KD Kasturi as they’re reaching 50 y.o when the last of LCS is commisioned. For comparison, KD rahmat was around 30 y.o when they were sent to glue factory
Any budget to for KD Kasturi and Lekiu upgrade should be used instead to add at least another LMSB2 to 4 vessels
I’m more interested in the fate of NGPV actually. In the next SLEP I’m hoping they would replace the caterpillar engine into something better as right now they could barely hit 25knot, other than the usual proposal to arm them with ASM and SAM
We can beached them on the reefs to expand. If only we have beached one at Pulau Batu Puteh, it would still be ours.
ASM – “ As for the Lekius, can they be repurposed as secondary combatants or training vessels”
Why? As they age more issues will surface. The plan Ro to standardise on LCSs and LMSs. Also, we already have a pair of training ships.
Dundun,
Until it breaks or can’t be operated anymore; nothing will be replaced on the Kedahs. Yes things reach a point when the question has to be asked: is spending more then needed on an aged asset which has reached the end of its growth potential and sound ROI and cost effective? Or would the cash be put to better use on something new? We face/faced this issue with the PT-91s, Su-30s, Laksamanas and various other things. With the Lekius its water under the bridge or to use a pun we missed the boat but an upgrade should have been done years ago.
With the Kasturis the upgrade we did was only expected to extend their service lives for another decade or so and the scope of the upgrade was scaled down due to funding.
No idea about the expanding part [doubt we have an need to expand anything] but as it stands we want to maintain the status quo rather then doing something seen as “provocative” and would result in the other side responding. Beaching something really provides no pay off and is politically risky. Not doing something “provocative” would also include a visit by the PM or Agong. Many years since a PM or Agong visited the Spratlys.
The Filipinos did what they did with the LST because there was no other option. Now it’s falling apart and the big headache is how to replace it when the time comes because the Chinese would react if the LST was replaced with a structure
While I do understand AH-64E superiority over any other attack hello (the fact that it’s heavier than any other “western” attack helo, but also as it has milimeter radar in conjunction to its EOTS), I do still think that having “an” attack helo is better than having none and Turkish T129 is a very attractive option especially if we can get them at kawan2 price
also fun fact; Eurocopter Tiger, A129 Mangusta and T129 Atak are all somewhat related. Whilst T129 is directly derived from Agusta A129, both A129 and Tiger shared initial platform design before Agusta and MBB parted ways and developed them independently.
It’s similar to how Typhoon and Rafale shared initial design before politics and divergent requirements separates them into two independent programme