SHAH ALAM: Deputy Defence Minister Adly Zahari today officiated the completion ceremony for two Nigerian Navy 38-meter patrol boats built by a local company KN Aluminium & Engineering Sdn Bhd together with Northern Shipyard Sdn Bhd at Langkawi island in Kedah.
The pennant numbers for the two boats are P197 and P198. The shipyard is located in Bukit Malut, Langkawi.
It is unclear why the deputy minister officiated the ceremony but likely it is to ensure that the ceremony was covered by the Malaysian media. From the pictures, the official handing over has not yet occurred as no one from Nigeria, not even from its local embassy people was present at the event.
Nigeria, one of the wealthiest countries in Africa, has procured arms, from various countries from China to Turkiye. It appears that Malaysia has now been added to the long-list though Northern Shipyard had also supplied four Manta class fast patrol boats in 2020. It is unclear the cooperation with KN Aluminum is all about though.
According to Bernama, the two newly completed patrol boats will be shipped to Nigeria using a cargo vessel next month. From the pictures, the two boats, which can reach 29 knots, I am guessing that they have a crew of thirty, could be armed with a 30mm/40mm gun forward and various machine guns aft. It is likely the guns will be installed once they are commissioned into the Nigerian Navy.
The release from the Defence Ministry:
Kedah, 13 Ogos 2024- Timbalan Menteri Pertahanan, YB Adly Zahari mewakili YB Dato’ Seri Mohamed Khaled Bin Nordin, Menteri Pertahanan telah merasmikan penyempurnaan Pembinaan Bot Peronda Tentera Laut Nigeria, 38M Sea Eagle yang dibangunkan oleh syarikat tempatan iaitu KN Aluminium & Engineering Sdn Bhd dengan kerjasama Northern Shipyard Sdn Bhd di Langkawi sebentar tadi.
Pembinaan ini menggunakan kepakaran 85 anak tempatan termasuk 5 orang tenaga pakar wanita. Kejayaan ini membuktikan keupayaan industri tempatan Malaysia yang mampu menghasilkan aset berteknologi tinggi setaraf dengan negara maju.
Despite the celebratory tone of the release, one wonders whether the ministry or the Home Ministry will ever award the two companies any contracts to build similar vessels for the RMN, MMEA or the Marine police.
— Malaysian Defence
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AFAIK, Nigera actually contracted those boats to a Singaporean company, which then subcontracted the actual build to the malaysian shipyards.
I believe this is not the first sea eagles that is build in Malaysia for Nigerian navy, the first 2 are build in 2009 at the ex-Hong Leong Luerssen Shipyard in Penang.
I wonder what is the cost of these newbuild P38 Sea Eagles, when compared to TLDM using the the convoluted path to get money by using OPEX piggybank to rebuild the very old Vospers.
Apart from this patrol boat we also exported Shin Yang-made LST; Al Quwaisat to UAE navy.
Doubt the gov are interested in paying for any more FAC size ship for the navy when similar ship for the CG would cost so much less.
“whether the ministry or the Home Ministry will ever award the two companies”
Very clearly evident in Picture #4, lion dance instead of barisan kompangs & bunga mas. That tells you why they will never get any, not directly anyways.
Anyhows it must be something that meets TLDM/MMEA requirements after all.
But yea the 2 company collabo is really strange. I guessing it was KN that won the deal but their not a shipyard so they had to partner with Northern to make them.
The Manta class is an odd duck having a big sheer midway, surely it wont do any good for speeding.
@Hulu
“newbuild P38 vs OPEX piggybank”
Both are not comparable, one is using CAPEX to buy new the other is using OPEX to rebuild. If TLDM had enough in the CAPEX kitty, they wont even consider to relive old boats.
yes, i know
“Both are not comparable”
$$$ is still $$$ no matter what the piggybank is from
If the newbuild is comparable cost to a rebuild, why bother rebuilding in the 1st place?
Rock – ”Apart from this patrol boat we also exported Shin Yang-made LST”
And patrol boats to Cambodia in the 1990’s. Hong Leong.
Zaft – ”Doubt the gov are interested in paying for any more FAC size ship ”
As has been explained before the RMN has zero intention to get any more FACs or boats similar in design to FACs. FACs are intended for sea denial [look up the use of MTBs and E-Boats in WW2 and the evolution of the missile armed FAC in the 1960’s] in a littoral environment; not extended EEZ patrols and this is why the LMS Batch 1s; despite being only gun armed; are a major improvement over the FACs when it comes to routine EEZ patrols.
Zaft – ”when similar ship for the CG would cost so much less.”
A ship for the RMN and one for the MMEA are for different reasons are are funded from different ministries; irrespective of what costs ”so much less”.
>If the newbuild is comparable cost to a rebuild, why bother rebuilding in the 1st place
Do we even know how much nigeria is paying for the boats? saying the cost is “comparable” without as much as a ballpark figure is disingenuous
@Hulu
“$$$ is still $$$ no matter what the piggybank is from”
Nope, far from it. That means you dont know how money works in a company. Its not as straightforward as your salary into your bank account.
“why bother rebuilding in the 1st place?”
Simply because they cannot use money from one to another, it is clearly allocated which is for OPEX and CAPEX.
These are Singapore designed ships built by local shipyards
>Singapore design
Really? Because this ship is similar to the earlier Sea Eagle patrol ship and based on nigerian netizen comment the design is from Germany.
Highly bizarre why the Deputy Minister would be there and why there’s not a single Nigerian representative from their embassy. Technically he or his office would have informed the Nigerian embassy his intention to be there and to board the ship as it is Nigerian owned.
More interestingly Nigeria is also a Lerici operator and its military saw action in Sierra Leone [Alpha Jets launched several low level strikes] and in the African “civil war” in the Congo. The Biafra war in Nigeria is also an interesting one to read about. Some of the same mercenaries – some famous ones – who were in Biafra were in the Congo when our troops were there. It was also in Biafra that Frederick Forsyth as a BBC corespondent got his plot for “The Day Of The Jackal”. An excellent read for the planning made by the protagonist.
I hope these boats are for legit deal and not something ordered by a Nigerian prince.
Frankly speaking, this ship are not comparable at all to Kedah Class, nor Maharaja Lela Class.. in term of complexity of the architecture of both structure wise and platform & combat system wise.
… – “ If the newbuild is comparable cost to a rebuild, why bother rebuilding in the 1st place”
You’re asking a question for which you already well very know the answer….Bureaucracy. Cash was allocated for a rebuild but not to buy new. Same with the rotary assets for the army and RMAF; cash allocated to lease but not – yet – to buy. No bit ever said governments always conduct things in an efficient, practical, logical or cost effective manner.
Was listening to a podcast with a retired CIA guy. He was recounting an incident where his department had to spend cash before the end of a fiscal year. They decided to buy 26 Jeep Cherokees which would be sent to various CIA stations. One of his staff went to a dealer who was only too happy to make the deal. The dealer offered a 15 percent discount which they politely had to say no to because all the cash needed to be spent.
No one said it was. However, for the purpose of MMEA or even the RMN for duties in ESSCOM, it is good enough.
If it was, we can see whether the Defence Ministry celebratory tone was simply just that.
I am guessing that some interested parties wanted some publicity about the capabilities of the two local companies involved in the project. RMN chief engineer had already stated that Northern Shipyard is among local companies capable of building naval and security ships up to fifty meter in length.
It is likely that Suncraft International, a company based in Singapore, was the company that supplied the design of the ship. Whether they did themselves or get it from a ship designer is beyond me. It was also listed as the designer for the Manta class patrol boats built by Northern Shipyard.
Lord – ”Frankly speaking, this ship are not comparable at all to Kedah Class, nor Maharaja Lela Class..”
What exactly is it you want to share with us and how germane is your point? If a local company launched a short range UAS with a loiter time of 4 hours would you say it’s not comparable to a Global Hawk?
Marhalim, any news on the Mica deal for LCS?
Nope
@Qamarul
Unless the first LCS already on sea trial…i doubt the goverment will sign the Mica now
… – “ If the newbuild is comparable cost to a rebuild, why bother rebuilding in the 1st place”
Buying new require plenty of other agencies, ministry etc etc to sign off before any acquisition can happened and along the way someone’s may just say No. You not going to buy whatever you want to buy because they would rather such assets operated by other agencies Or NO to your choice of vendors &/ or equipment because they wanted commonality with the other agencies.
Rebuild ie spending the OPEX, is usually under the control of the single agencies. From what I understand the helo least happens because the military claim the nuri still exist* and thus the money that should be use for the utilities of the nuri ie fuel, maintenance is used to pay for the lease.