SHAH ALAM: Meko A100 corvette. As we were busy with LIMA 19, Brazil announced in late March that it had chosen a German/Brazilian consortium as the preferred bidder to build four corvettes for its navy. The consortium Águas Azuis Consortium – comprising ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, Embraer Defense & Security and Atech – will set up a new company to start the process of building the four new Tamandaré-class corvettes.
So what this got to do with Malaysia then? The design for the four corvettes is based on the Meko A100 class from ThyssenKrupp. Yes, its a variant of RMN own Kedah class.
A CGI of the future Tamandre class corvette.
The programme is also likely to involve the transfer of technology (ToT) in the naval engineering for military shipbuilding, combat and platform management systems.
Oceana shipyard in Itajaí, Brazil, will be responsible for building the vessels and acting as ToT receiver related to the project.
The combat management system (CMS) and integrated platform management system (IPMS) will be supplied by Atech in partnership with ThyssenKrupp’s subsidiary ATLAS ELEKTRONIK and L3 MAPPS.
Embraer Defense & Security’s role in the project will be to integrate sensors and weaponry into the combat system.
The consortium’s winning bid is based on the concept of the MEKO-class design for the corvettes.
The design is claimed to deliver acquisition, maintenance, and modernisation cost savings as it enables local integration and transfer of technology.
It is interesting to see that ThyssenKrupp had managed to sell the same design some 20 years after it had done the same with Malaysia. Unfortunately, due to malfeasance with PSC Sdn Bhd, we are left with the design but without any new ships.
It will be also interesting to see what will happen to the current Kedah class. Based on the conversations I had with the industry during LIMA 19, its not a pretty one.
— Malaysian Defence
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Yes, i have commented on this before
https://www.malaysiandefence.com/mica-deal-kived/#comment-366461
It is basically:
The same variant of enlarged meko a100 that lost to the Gowind for the SGPV LCS competition. The ships will measure 107.2 meters in length and will displace 3,455 tons (our gowinds 111m long and 3,100 tons displacement). The design is still without an exhaust stack, something that is an issue with TLDM.
The price of each of them is USD400 million. (Our meko a100 cost USD300 million, while our Gowinds USD460 million)
It would be a general purpose corvette, so there is no towed array sonar, unlike our gowinds.
As for the armament, guns are 76mm up front, 40mm bofors on top of the hangar (our kedahs has 30mm on top of the hangar), exocet AShM, CAMM anti air missiles and internal torpedo launcher like our Gowinds.
As for our kedah class ships, spending more money to upgrade the ship means less money for something more capable like the Gowinds. In our circumstance, the best way forward for the kedah class IMO is to pass them to MMEA. It would then not be a "warship" anymore, and any actions of the ship against civilian ships etc. would be a policing, not naval action. IMO TLDM should get out of the OPV business altogether, freeing the budget to aquire more frigates and more submarines.
https://www.malaysiandefence.com/another-look-rmn-15-to-5/
So meaning the 15-to-5 plan is going to be a bust? Sigh...
Kudos to you for your continued persistence.on reporting on malaysian defence matters when its always SNAFU
Get out of the OPV business?why? Are we too good? Even the aussie and brits.and dutch are in the OPV business, so why not us? The budget is still the budget from the same pool so grab what you could.
@ shahrudin esa
I did not say us as in Malaysia. What I said is that for TLDM to get out of OPV business. That means leaving the OPV business to MMEA. What I did not agree is for TLDM to get more Kedah-class OPVs, or any OPVs for that matter. Peacetime patrolling is a task of MMEA, as we have MMEA in the 1st place.
MMEA is getting OPVs such as the Damen OPV 1800 for just USD56 million each. Which is in my book better value than the USD300 million Kedah class.
https://www.malaysiandefence.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/OPV_1800.jpg
Another ship that would be great for MMEA would be the Indian Coast Guard, larsen & toubro bulit Vikram-class OPV. Each ship just cost USD32 million and it is actually even bigger than our Kedah-class OPV!
http://diplomacybeyond.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/ICGS-Vikram.jpg
https://www.iastoppers.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/OPV-Vikram-iastoppers.jpg
@ ...
The problem is that currently APMM is vastly underfunded for its stated job description.
Even the TLDM, with far more funds and modern vessels available have admitted they are currently overstretched in patrolling Malaysia's maritime territories.
Yet the APMM is supposed to takeover the job from the TLDM with far, far less funding and 30-40 year old cast-off ships.
@ Military madness
They (TLDM) are overstretched because they buy gold plated ships to do mundane taskings. IMO MMEA has avoided this, and even managed to buy 3 OPVs from the approved budget to buy just 2. More of my answers here in my posting
https://www.malaysiandefence.com/apmm-plans/
I understand your point. However turning over the Kedah OPVs will leave RMN depleted. Lets be realistic, theres no money for some time and even the navies not the coast guards of Australia, NZ, Dutch finds border policing as part of the navy area of responsibility. Why not us? After all, theoretically the Kedah is uogradeable " under built but not fitted " for concept. Anyway MMEA policing is adequate for 30mm guns leaving the 76mm Kedahs over gun. The cost ...well thats history hopefully MACC and other balancing institution will get their independence before this PM goes. Remembet in WW2 its the Flower class merchantile standard corvettes that win the battle of Atlantic
@ shahrudin esa
As i said again and again, because we have a coast guard! Sigh, this is also why we should have a defence white paper, so something like this would be clear to everyone.
There is no issue of depletion, as the ships will still be operational albeit now under MMEA. TLDM will be getting Gowind frigates soon too.
So why we should use MMEA more for peacetime patrolling?
South China Sea. China and vietnam uses mostly coast guard ships to patrol its contested area. As of right now, vietnam coast guard is even bigger than its own navy. Why? As I said, coast guard activities are considered as civilian policing action, not a military action. Diplomatically that is a huge difference in using a navy or a coast guard ship. That is why most of chinese ships parked in malaysian EEZ is a coast guard ship. Right now, any actions of a malaysian naval warship against a chinese coast guard ship would be seen as a military agression towards the chinese coast guard ship. If we have a coast guard ship to take action against the chinese coast guard ship for example, actions against the chinese coast guard ship would be seen as a policing action.
TLDM should of course still do patrols, but not using and having ships build specifically for that like the Kedah-class. In 15 to 5, they wanted 12 more Kedah class ships, which is IMO a big waste of resources. Resources IMO can be better used for buying more submarines for example. A coast guard specific OPV like the damen OPV 1800 can be bought for like just 20% of the original cost of the Kedah-class, and would do the same mission.
12 more Kedah-class batch 2 ships would probably buy 40-50 more coast guard OPVs like the Vikram-class. Is buying more Kedah-class ships a prudent use of money? That is another reason why it is better for the coast guard to shoulder the OPV tasks, because they can have more cost effective ships to do the missions.
Just for your info, average cost of ships
Kedah class - USD300 million
Keris class LMS - USD60 million
Kedah class batch 2 target cost - USD150 million
MMEA Damen OPV 1800 - USD56 million
Vikram class OPV - USD32 million
Gowind - USD460 million
Arrowhead 140 - USD350 million
Scorpene SSK - USD500 million
@MilitaryMadness
All of our Forces are underfunded and overstretched (except for the Police me thinks). It depends on each of them to make full use of whatever budget they can haggle.
Some managed to get more because they were able to lay out a clearly defined, long term viable plan for their Force (ie TLDM 15 to 5 Plan). Some others (ie CAP55) are just wish list. It is quite sad the conciever of the TLDM plan, Laksamana Kamarulzaman Badaruddin, had retired instead being made Head of the Armed Forces. He could have brought more vision to the Forces and instituted long term planning with SMART goals onto the respective Forces.