SHAH ALAM: It was reported on Oct. 30 that the government had awarded a RM19.5 million to Boustead Heavy Industries Corp Bhd (BHIC) to supply and deliver a communications suite for Squadron 23rd Frigate of the Royal Malaysian Navy.
BHIC said the contract, valid for the next two years, was awarded to its wholly-owned unit, BHIC Defence Techservices Sdn Bhd (BDTS).
“A formal contract between the government of Malaysia and BDTS will be signed at a later date,” BHIC said in a statement filed with Bursa Malaysia. As I had missed the announcement on that day this is posted here for the record.
Today it was reported that BHIC shares at Bursa Malaysia was down after it reported that it had lower earnings in Q3. Of course one could find other ways to report the news.
Malaysian Defence had posted other upgrades to both KD Lekiu and KD Jebat, which make up the squadron previously. Lekiu is currently in Thailand together with Gagah Samudera for the inaugural Asean International Fleet Review to be held in Pattaya this weekend.
It is likely the new communications suite was contracted to overcome obsolescence issues as the two ships were built in 1994 and 1995 just like the other new equipment recently acquired for them.
However, it is likely that the new items being installed on them are probably the last ones to be paid for in the near future. I was told that due to the 15-to-5 plan no more funds will be allocated for future upgrades. As you aware under the plan, RMN fleet of the future will only comprise of the LCS, LMS, kedah-class, the MRSS and the submarines.
The Lekiu and Jebat will undergo periodic refits as scheduled but this will be only to ensure that they will be able to continue with their duties. The same is also expected for the other legacy ships in the navy including the Kasturi-class and Laksamana class corvettes and the FACs.
This is expected as the navy ramped up its 15-to-5 plan. The government cannot afford to buy new ships while at the same time funding new things on RMN older ships. How this is will be managed is beyond me, however.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (25)
Look at the maps of the ships participating in the fleet review. The lead ship is the Royal Thai Navy's historic ship, the destroyer HTMS Pinklao. The ship was launched in september 1943, which makes it 74 years old this year.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/media_dc/image_dc/2013-08/file6b7stm8z1j58nz76nid.jpg
Hopefully TLDM personnels going to the review could visit the ship and learn more about how they manage to keep that historical ship operational. This could be then used to keep KD Hang Tuah in commission.
If thailand can do it, we can do it too.
The 2nd ship in the fleet review is also a historical ship. HTMS Makut Rajakumarn is a sister ship design to our own KD Rahmat. Now used as a training ship after being SLEP by thales.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UApazFfs-tA/VLkSae5ooeI/AAAAAAAAjJE/4NhPettkVFw/s1600/!%2BTHAILAND%2B433%2BMAKUT%2BRAJAKUMARN%2Bon%2B21-08-2010%2Bar%2BDarwin%2B%2B15.JPG
Exocet MM40 and Sea Wolf would be time expired soon. If there is no more further money for upgrade on Lekiu and Jebat does this mean it will be only gun based ships soon?
Reply
Likely
It makes more financial sense just to concentrate on the gowind and the scorpene as main combatant maybe 12 gowind and 4 scorpenes.The lms for the patrol both offshore and inshore. Maybe up to 24. So can cut the ngpv,lekius,kasturis and Lasamanas. Just my 2 cents
kamal,
We might not be willing to pay for new missile systems, but it's more likely that we will pay for new rounds, refurbishing our current rounds or even secondhand rounds.
This market for new western anti ship and anti air misel is expand a lot now. Anti ship misel u got nsm, lrasm, new rbs 15 mk4, perseus, unname israel and allies supersonic anti ship misel, japan and this korean misel.
It be interesting to see wut navy in region replace use and replace old misel sistem
For anti air at lower layer ter is mica, improve barak 1 and camm, middle layer tet is aster 15, camm er, and essm. Upper layer ter is aater 30, barak 8 and standard. Ter is also diferent in approach by us and euro sistem. Euro sistem more hit to kill using one misel but us sistem like essm require more than one misel for every enemy misel.
LMS remind me the gumdoksuri class of south korean navy..
“Euro sistem more hit to kill using one misel but us sistem like essm require more than one misel for every enemy misel”
Do you have a source to support this? Sounds like a very suspicious claim.
Dear Mr Am pls google DS2017 mbda ready to deliver the vl mica to rta next year.
I suspect tat mica sucess over camm, aster 15 and essm in msny countris becuz of overall cost, ease of operations, no need for addition cueing from ship radar and rapid lunching. The other sistem need integration cost wit ship sistem but it also mean better and flexibel performances. Mica also shortest renge compare to essm, aster 15 and camm. And in in term of end game performance has least energy for wild vector turns becuz of hot lunch sistem. Camm is cold lunch (but still suffer frm energy lost as cold lunch will not send the misel to high up)but aster has separate boster which give misel dart retain a lot of energy. Essm also suffer frm this energy loss as it hot lunch. Wut it meaning is tat end game less g force turns so less performance. It also meaning u need to take max renge into context. Mica might be 20km max renge. But it effevtiveness is much less. Same wif essm. For end game performance aster is best. Both rmn and rsn want aster.
For essm curently it need illuminator frm mother ship. It may be problem if mother ship is occupy wif multipel threat and damages ongoing.
euro misel tend to be direct hit.us misel is proximity fuse like essm. Probabiliti of hit is higer for direct hit misel. For proximity fuse it may require more then 1 misel to kill enemy misel esp if enemy misel is very fast exampel high subsonic or supersonic.