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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View Comments (24)
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.
yes, i know
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.
"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.
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.