SHAH ALAM: Lumut base open day, next weekend. RMN will have an open day at its Lumut naval base next weekend, from December 29 to December 31. On the agenda will be various events held for the public. The gates open from 9am to 7pm.
To prepare for the 2022 open day, the RMN museum ship, KD Hang Tuah had undergone a period of dry docking at the adjacent Boustead Naval Shipyard, some six months ago with the work completed in early September.
From BNS post three months ago:
Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS) is pleased to announce the completion of the repair job for the KD HANG TUAH project which has been accepted by the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) on 05th Sept 2022. Furthermore, BNS is also proud to inform the handover was done earlier than its contractual date.
As a routine process in every ship acceptance ceremony, the program begins with an inspection by the client going onboard the ship to examine the work completion. The clients were represented by Cdr. Mohd Zalmi Zamberi RMN the Assistant Chief of Support Staff from Western Logistics Headquarters, and Lt. Cdr. Abd Amir Malek Abd Kadir Kailani RMN the Commanding Officer (CO) of KD HANG TUAH, while BNS was represented by Cdr. Syed Ahyattudin Shid Idris (Retired) the Head of the Ship Repair Department, Mr. Othman Puteh the BNS Project Manager for KD HANG TUAH, Mr. Mohd Salim Aspan the Head of Production Department and Mr. Mohd Fahizal Jaafar the Manager from Production Department.
After completing the inspection onboard ship, the program continued to review the summary of the repair project prior to signing the ship’s acceptance certificate. BNS would like to extend congratulations to the project team and all staff for their achievement in completing the repair job earlier than its contractual date.
From the video posted by BNS, it appears that they did not do very much during the maintenance period. It is likely the ship got repainted and her electrical components got checked and probably refurbished as well to ensure she look the part of a museum ship. Hang Tuah was made the RMN museum ship in 2018, hence she got a CO and a skeleton crew to maintain her.
— Malaysian Defence
Museum ships are a drag on finances especially for an underbudgeted navy. I’d much prefer we save cost of maintenance by permanently landing her as static on land display as with the Agosta sub. And rather than an active duty crew, they could make use of excrewmen or retired navymen to man her as guides. Put her together with that sub and a FAC/PC in a TLDM dedicated museum & park, ideally a short hop of a major highway or urban area.