SHAH ALAM: The Cabinet has decided to go forward with options two and three for the LCS project, says Defence Minister DS Ismail Sabri told Parliament yesterday. He said the Cabinet had decided to drop option one from the consideration. Ismail had told Parliament in August back that the ministry had offered to the Cabinet three options to revive the LCS project.
Option one was to get Naval Group – the state owned French company and design authority – to act as the main contractor replacing Boustead Naval Shipyard (BNS) or option two allow BNS – a Malaysian state owned company and main contractor for the LCS – to complete two ships for another RM3 billion. The third option was to find another company to revive the project.
Ismail said the Cabinet had decided not to take option one and considerations was still on-going for the second and third options. From the Hansard
Jadi, ada tiga opsyen yang kita cadangkan kepada Kabinet. Pertama, supaya syarikat French Naval Group yang menjadi pemegang kepada design ini, ia meneruskan kontrak ini. Itu opsyen yang
pertama.Opsyen kedua, kita serahkan semula kepada Boustead Shipyard untuk
meneruskan projek. Kalau LCS diteruskan oleh Boustead Shipyard, kita terpaksa
release kan RM3 bilion lagi. Sebenarnya projek ini RM9 bilion, RM6 bilion memang telah
digunakan, tinggal RM3 bilion lagi. Kita terpaksa beri kepada mereka untuk meneruskan
projek. Ketiga adalah tamatkan kontrak, kita lantik syarikat lain sebagai syarikat
penyelamat. Jadi, dalam keputusan yang dibuat oleh Kabinet, opsyen pertama kita kata,
kita tidak perlu gunakan opsyen pertama, tidak perlu memilih opsyen yang pertama. Ada
dua opsyen saja. Boustead Shipyard, mungkin kita boleh beri mereka peluang. Akan
tetapi Boustead Shipyard perlu membentangkan dari segi perancangan mereka kalau
kita berikan kebenaran mereka untuk teruskan kontrak, itu untuk long term. Akan tetapi untuk short term, jangka pendek, tindakan-tindakan diambil.
Pertama, melaporkan kepada SPRM. Kedua, menyerahkan kepada PAC supaya
menyiasat. Ketiga, forensic audit mesti dilakukan. Keempat, due deligence, kalau kita
hendak bagi kepada mereka, adakah mereka mempunyai kemampuan lagi? So, due
deligence mesti dilakukan dan laporan akan dikeluarkan. Kelima, revamp. Semua
pengurusan tertinggi di dalam Boustead Shipyard dan yang seterusnya kalau ada di
dapati kes yang melibatkan penyalah gunaan, domestic enquiry akan diteruskan. Ini
untuk short term. Akan tetapi long term, kita akan tunggu lagi cadangan yang akan
dibuat oleh Boustead Shipyard ini, apa yang sepatutnya dilakukan seterusnya.
Based on the statement from the minister, it appears that SPRM lodged Boustead two months ago was part of the plan to revive the project. To be honest I have no idea why they want the Public Accounting Committee to investigate further about the project as the AG had already done an audit report on the project.
It is likely that the government, if it is not superseded by a new one, any revival of the LCS project – approval and budget – will only be firmed up in the RMK12. The RMK12 is supposed to be announced in the new year.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (65)
If option 2 is chosen, that would mean we will get just 2 Gowinds at a price of RM4.5 billion each. Or about USD1.11 billion each.
Seriously not a great idea.
We need 6 ASW frigates. Not 2.
Just sell off all the hulls, keep all the electronics, radar and weapons and start over.
So..the LCS program will continue..thats good. Hope those LCS can complete ASAP.
"Delivery of the Type 31 is a fixed contract between Babcock and the MoD that does not allow the customer to make changes to the design or equipment fit during construction. Although there is plenty of margin for additions, any upgrades will have to be made after they enter service."
Good news as we need decision and action.
And this two options are part of it.
Just Cancel the project and find the altenative way. Do like British Type 26 or French Newest stealth Frigate
In the crossroads really..wanna scrap this project, billions already invested in..wanna continue this project it will become vastly overpriced..hmmm..
I believe option 3 is unnecessary. The gowind predicament is not mainly caused by BNS technical incompetence. Going for option 3 means still more uncertainty to the deadlines and cost, that could turn out to be much more worse than option 2.
Anyway I would propose an option 4. This is to recoup as much as possible the money we have spent, while setting up for a better future capability for TLDM when compared to option 2.
My Option 4.
- Return all 6 Gowind hulls back to Naval Group for resell to 3rd party. Naval Group will give Malaysia a single Scorpene Submarine in return. Naval Group will pay BNS to complete all 6 gowinds as a sailable ship (with engine, bridge systems, IPMS) without weapons and combat systems installed. Naval Group can choose to complete the Gowinds in BNS or at other locations (for example at the country that buys the hulls).
- Malaysia to keep all weapons (57mm gun, 30mm RCWS, NSM missiles) and electronic systems (Fire control radar, SMART-S radar, ESM, sonar, towed VDS sonar, SOFRESUD pointers, etc.) that has been bought for the programme. The paid for CMS would probably be best given together with the hulls back to Naval Group.
- Restart the LCS project with a new hull design. To have 6 ships, wanted or not we need to go with a lower spec and cheaper hull when compared to the gowinds. All 6 to be built by the designer own shipyard. A 2nd batch of 6 would be later be considered to be build in Malaysia. 2nd batch to be paid for in RMK13 2026-2030.
- The proposed new hull design would be based on the HDF-2600 ( I would call this the HDF-2600 Mod ). This could be bundled together with a major buy of fighters and armoured vehicles from Korea. Phillipines got their HDF-2600 for USD165 million each, that is including guns, radars and other electronics, excluding missiles. As most of the radars, electronics, guns etc. will be carried over from what we have bought for Gowinds, i believe we can get them for around USD135 million each. That is about RM3.5 billion for 6 ships.
So for RM500 million more than Option 2, we could have 6 ASW Frigates, plus an additional Scorpene. This will also set us up to buy another 6x HDF-2600 Mod in RMK13 2026-2030.
So with Option 4, by 2030 TLDM would have
2x Lekiu (to be retired post 2030, replace with Type 31? )
2x Kasturi (to be retired post 2030, replace with Type 31? )
12x HDF-2600 Mod (6x paid for in RMK12, 6x paid for in RMK13)
4x Scorpenes (1x in exchange of 6 gowinds, 1x paid for in RMK13)
If go for Option 2 probably TLDM by 2030 would have
2x Lekiu
2x Kasturi
4x Gowind (2 more paid for in RMK13 to be completed)
2x Scorpenes.
@...
12 frigates are really optimistic. If RMN could get six it's already a blessing!
So actually what caused the delays at the first place? Since it's not due technical reasons, someone doing an Amin Shah again?
if option 2 fail? how? can Boustead pay the penalty? I not sure option 1 how much we going to pay but if DCNS fail, they have a big financial background to pay the penalty or ensure the project will not fail easily. Option 2 and 3 look safe cost but you cannot see and measure if it fail again. HSR project become HJR project is a very short term thinking. Anyway, we think big but do not have cash. So, we now need to think small.
One thing for certain..This LCS will not enter service anytime soon..Mybe post 2025..Yeah thats right, at that time maybe SG MRCV or/and ID's Iver already close to enter the service.