SHAH ALAM: Defence Minister DS Khaled Nordin has identified the location of the new RMN base in Bintulu, Sarawak. He said the location was Samalaju without further explanation. Checks showed that Samalaju is an industrial township located some 60km north off Bintulu town. And it is not just any township, Samalaju also has a deep-water port, the likely site of the naval base.
The deal for the RMN base is the final stages of negotiations with the Sarawak government for the premium (cost) of the land, Khaled said during a visit to Kuching, Sarawak on August 8. He met with Sarawak Premier TS Abang Johari Openg.
Khaled told reporters that Abang Johari agreed the base and its command – Regional Command Headquarters 4 or MAWILLA 4 – be built at Samalaju which was near the Kawasari gas fields and Beting Patinggi Ali in the Malaysian Exclusive Economic Zone in the South China Sea.
It must be noted the Samalaju township has been developed by the state-owned Regional Development Authority and the Bintulu Development Authority (BDA) since 2008, has a deep-water port but checks on Google Maps showed it’s not as active as the Bintulu port.
Perhaps, our Sarawakian readers – Nimitz and Taib- could chimed on this. It is likely as the other parts of the industrial park were already taken up by various industries, the RMN housing (quarters) will have to be built adjacent to the park.
It must be noted that the talk about building a new RMN base in Sarawak started in the 90s and it is likely that based on the latest news, it will be inaugurated in 2030, at the earliest. At least by that time, RMN will have eight new ships – five LCS and three LMS Batch 2 – if everything works out well, of course.
According to KTA the builder, the port has
a total of 7 berths currently with a provision for another 7 or 8 more berths serves the Samalaju Industrial complex to the south. It is carved out of shallow waters with no natural protection from waves up to 4.5m from the South China Sea. Breakwaters formed from natural rocks and concrete tetra-pods were designed and constructed to make it an all-weather deep sea port.
–Malaysian Defence
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IMHO an outpost with a garrison will be more suitable here with Merad to complement the new radar. The budget for new base will be big but an outpost just a fraction of it. The money saved can be used to buy any cheap medium range coastal defence missiles. Of course the outpost can accomodate RMN ships at any time
There will be a garrison there to support the ships. It is just that the quarters need to be somewhere else as the port is not purpose built like Lumut, Langkawi and Sepanggar. Mawilla 1 (Kuantan) and Mawilla 2 (Sandakan) as they were built on an exisiting port, have their quarters outside.
Bintulu Port is to cater for industries in Kidurong, mostly oil and gas, crude palm oil, timber and others. All major shipping agents operate from here.
Samalaju port is to cater for industries in Samalaju, mostly for aluminium smelting plant by Press Metal, phosphoric acid, ferray alloys, polysilicon or other industries that require high electrical supply due to extra capacity from Murum and Bakun dam.
The choice of Samalaju is good due to location and the area is further away from the population.
ok, thank you.
With RMN planned 60++ ships including 12 LCS, 18 LMS as well as LHAs and couple more submarines we do need additional naval bases
Any news on the AF and army camp at Bintulu as well?
Nope
AFAIK, there are no plans for additional RMN bases apart from Mawilla 4. There is a plan to expand the RMN base in Kuantan (Mawilla 1) though I am not sure of the funding. If the Bintulu base got approved and the funds are made available in the next RMK, it is likely Mawilla 1 expansion will be done in 2030s. The priority now of course is to get new ships online as building bases are pretty expensive as well though it is important as well. I am pretty sure the one in Bintulu will cost around RM500 million at least.
Do note that some of the plans for Sepanggar naval base were not carried out as they ran out of funding.
New bases are needed; not so much because the service will have D number of ships in the future but because
berthing space at existing bases are limited but also because new baes in certain areas will better support a presence at sea in certain areas.
As for “cheap medium range coastal defence missiles” not only is it a different issue entirely but in this day and age nothing is cheap. Also, ensuring that “cheap medium range coastal defence missile” is fully networked with various other assets is not “cheap”
Tender been called to upgrade the existing bintulu airport to TUDM BARE BASE via design & built basis by jkr
https://tender.jkr.gov.my/kenyataan/tender/view2?id=536&ids=JKR%2FCKUB%2F22516%2F2023
from what i know so far is to have a hanger and security parameter surrounding it as the name suggest it a such “bare base”. Basically a shared military and civilian airport
What a crying shame and what a fking waste.
Countries with even bigger budget and more advanced military than us would still find uses for their older vehicles until they’re hopelessly obsolete. Meanwhile in bolehland we’re so focused on the new toys that we allow a perfect useable assets to rot because “sebab boleh dik”
Stuff like FH-70s and Spexer radar (that wasn’t even that old) can be placed there while waiting for permanent long range radar to go operational
Speaking of TUDM bases, now that Batik Air are allowed to fly jet airliners out of Subang Airport, it is very likely that more budget airlines will clamour to restart service from there, and I can see there is much financial incentives for this Govt to do so after so long time that Subang has downsized their operation (ostensibly for the safety and health reasons of the mushrooming housing & commercial developments around it, reasons which 20 years later now got thrown out the window LOL).
But with the expected civil air traffic revival of Subang, what do you make of the airbase there? Will there be higher security/spying risk? Will the air congestion be such that TUDM will have to move out?
RAMF will not move out of Subang as it has spend too much money on building infrastructure there and the government cannot afford to build a new one for them.
With Subang getting busier it simply meant that RMAF ceremonies which traditional flypast will have to done elsewhere.
I see, yeah I also think it wont be so simple to move out since it was where they had moved from Sg Besi AB not so long ago to give way for Bandar Malaysia. But with the expected busier air traffic, its not so much the ceremonies but that I assume TUDM will also have to que for takeoffs and landings, even if they wont be sharing the same runway. There is only so much of airspace available to stagger their arrivals/ departures and TUDM might not get priority on daily basis over the ire of passengers having to suddenly get delayed.
If TUDM needs to “share”, it might be a risk their flight plans will be leaked, and it also implies that TUDM there will have limited flights in/out that base. In terms of flexibility and usefulness during abrupt emergencies/trainings, i foresee the limitations and what a mess it will be to planners. Maybe moving out will be sooner than later.
Joe “But with the expected civil air traffic revival of Subang, what do you make of the airbase there? Will there be higher security/spying risk? Will the air congestion be such that TUDM will have to move out?”
Since when we move camp due to security, safety and all other nice things?
We move camp mainly because of one thing and one thing only ie. money. It’s also the same reason why SZB is being reactivated, basically just so WCT can build a premium shopping mall cum airport terminal.
Subang airport has only one runway.
@Zaft
“Since when we move camp”
Since all the other factors lead to causing a security and safety risk. Sg Besi AB was one of them.
“Subang airport has only one runway.”
Which makes things even more dicey if TUDM urgently needs to use the sole runway when there are planes parked up to land/takeoff.
Sg Besi was made redundant when DBKL approved the building of the TRX. Once the decision to allow the building of TRX, it could not longer host flying assets, it became redundant. It got nothing to do with security risks.
If there is an emergency, TUDM will have the priority to fly out or land on the runway, civilian aircraft will likely divert to KLIA. Do note that RMAF only has around 15 aircraft based in Subang, if there is need to fly them all of them out of Subang they will clear within 20 minutes. Plenty of time for civilian operators to mitigate the issue
I posted 3 comments on TLDM Bintulu but not published…
The new terminal at SZB would only have max capacity of 8 mil passenger per annum. Meanwhile a single runway airport can take upwards of 25 mppa.
I did not see them even in the spam and bin sections.
RMN base will be at north-east edge of Samalaju Industrial Park, roughly near Kpg. Nyalau.
“It is just that the quarters need to be somewhere else as the port is not purpose built…” Not sure about this, maybe the base will have its own breakwaters etc, or sharing existing Samalaju Port infrastructures, design not finalised.
I lean towards the idea of the base will be purpose-built like Lumut for example because RMN Bintulu will have its own port navigational channel, meaning to say no need share Samalaju pilot,tugboat and mooring gang.
If it’s going to be a purpose-built base with its own port, it will cost more than RM500 million. Do note that the new camp being built at Felda Sahabat in Lahad Datu will cost some RM547 million.
dundun – ‘’Countries with even bigger budget and more advanced military than us would still find uses for their older vehicles until they’re hopelessly obsolete.‘’
I‘ll be a devil’s advocate and say that other countries have different requirements and level resources。 Comparisons are great but look at the context。
dundun – ’‘Meanwhile in bolehland we’re so focused on the new toys”
If you haven‘t noticed this is because funds are tight。 Older gear can be resource intensive to sustain。Why do you think the RMN and RMAF came up with the 5/15 and CAP 55?
dundun – Stuff like FH-70s and Spexer radar (that wasn’t even that old) can be placed there while waiting for permanent long range radar to go operational’‘
What？
The FH-70s were retired more than 2 decades ago and the Spexers are inoperable because they are deemed too expensive to fix. This reminds me of another poster insisting years ago the V-100/50s be refurbished and placed back into storage; problem is they were turned to scrap long ago.
As for security related issues with air bases; in this day and and age; unless a base is located miles away from any population or commercial centres; it’s really hard to maintain total security. Lots of air bases are located alongside airports; i.e. Rhein air base in Frankfurt.
Then again if a new purchase has been marked up 200% and maintenance cost is also a marked up percentage, all new purchases take away a big chunk of the defence budget capex and opex.
Hasnan – ”all new purchases take away a big chunk of the defence budget capex and opex.”
Obviously. Hence my reference to us having a military we can’t afford to sustain and equip the way we’d like and a military whose capabilities don’t reflect what we’ve spent on it.