SHAH ALAM: Police Marine motherships out for tender. In July, last year, Malaysian Defence reported that the Marine police was expecting a tender for the two 60-meter motherships to be published soon. Some 14 months later, a tender for such motherships had indeed been published in the Eperolehan website. Specifications for the ships revealed that once in service, it will be the biggest operated by the Marine Police.
The tender is entitled:
PEROLEHAN KAPAL PENGANGKUT KELAS POLICE TRANSPORT VESSEL PELBAGAI KEGUNAAN SEBAGAI PENGANGKUT BARANG/BOT/KENDERAAN, KAPAL INDUK (MOTHER SHIP) DAN LATIHAN [KDN/PL 41/2022-PT]
or the Procurement of the multi-purpose for goods/boats/vehicle carrier; mother ship and training police transport vessel.
The request for bids/tender was published on October 20 and closes this December 20. Based on the specifications page, only local shipyards with the approved designation from the Finance Ministry are allowed to bid for the tender.
The Bidder must supply multipurpose Police Transport Vessel designed to
ensure transportation missions and all typical maritime police missions, such as: i) Transport of specific vehicles (Lorries, Land Rover, Rigid Hull Fender Boat (RHFB).
ii) Transport of equipment in containers and containerized missions -Support at sea
iii) General patrol within territorial and exclusive economic zone waters – Law enforcement at sea.
iv) Control of smuggling.
v) Control of illegal immigration.
vi) Control of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU).
vii) Functioning as mother ship training purpose.
viii) Search and rescue.
A summary (by Malaysian Defence) of the specifications are as follows: two aluminium catamarans with a length of at least 55 meters and not more 60 meters. Top speed of 35 knots and a cruising range of 1500NM and an endurance of 14 days. Armed with a single 20mm remote weapon station and two deck mounted machine guns. A complement of 30 personnel and space for 30 passengers (seated). Equipped with a vehicle and goods deck and a helicopter landing pad.
Based on the specifications, I am inclined to believe that the two motherships will be something like the Austal High Speed Support Vessel (HSSV) of which two are in service with the Royal Navy of Oman (main picture). The aluminium catamaran HSSV are much longer though at 72 meters and with a crew of 69 and passenger capacity of 260. Interestingly, Austal has design concepts for bigger catamarans although I am sure they could also downsize it to meet the marine police requirements.
Lomocean Marine from New Zealand, which had supplied several designs for local shipbuilders in the past, has a pleasure catamaran with a similar design to the one being sought for the motherships but I am not sure whether it will be suitable or not.
I guess we have to wait for the winning bidder to be announced next year which design has been selected.
— Malaysian Defence
View Comments (21)
Polis Marin should really concentrate on inshore patrols and leave offshore to MMEA.
Pretty sensible choice there to go for catamaran roro. a proven platforms that already been Utilize by USN & RNO, design by a country that MY has no problems pay money to. flexible platforms to be use to perform strategic lift, patrols the sea and has both peacetime & wartime utilities. The vessel itself has a commercial purposes that the production line can be continued to build ferry for public use after the polis vessel is completed like re-establishing the feri merdeka for example.
Kinda cheap as well. The omani if not mistaken pays around rm300 mil for these.Personally the navy should just Cancelled the LPD and just go for LHD + a few of these RoRo.
There is nothing offshore about these ships at all, at a max of 60m. They are tiny and puny annd only sufficient for inshore work within the 12 nm of territorial waters.
@TomTom
Bagan Datuks are 45mtrs while Tun Fatimahs are 80mtrs, both which are offshore boats. So the design spec of 60mtrs indicates a boat that can go father out, whatmore with a 14 day endurance. This is defo NOT an inshore boat.
The Bagan Datuk are inshore boats
Joe, this a 60 m Mother Ship, not a normal patrol boat. A 60 m Mother Ship is nothing. It’s not just the length per but you must also look at the actual classification of the boat. A 100 m Aircraft Carrier might sound huge, but will only be a mini mini mini in that classification.
@tomtom
It's a catamaran, so it should have as much as internal space as 2 60 meter ship combined. It's also a RoRo ferry likely to be used to transport vehicle between east & west MY, It would be very weird if such ship can't go offshore.
@joe
It's up to MMEA or even RMN to proof they are worthy of more funding by competing with one another rather than the gov create a mini monopoly for them and let them be complacent. The LMS, KM tun Fatimah & this ship cost within ballparks of one another. There's no point in rewarding agencies who bought the worst bang for the bucks ship around.
KM Tun Fatimah OPV at 1800 ton cost a few million less than the 700 ton LMS
But India made a 2100 ton OPV at 1/2 of KM Tun Fatimah OPV price
Korea made a 4000 ton OPV at 2/3 of KM Tun Fatimah OPV price
So for the price of 1 Gowind, the koreans manage to build 10 4000 ton OPVs.
If malaysia properly prioritize its budget, we can properly secure our seas even before 2030.
You forgot to add the locally made tax. And you cannot compare a corvette to an OPV, its apple and oranges
Zaft - "It would be very weird if such ship can’t go offshore"
Even a 800 tonne ship can operate in the North Atlantic. The question is how uncomfortable and challenging will it get. Whether these ships can go "offshore" depends on the sea conditions.
Zaft - "It’s up to MMEA or even RMN to proof they are worthy of more funding by competing with one another rather than the gov create a mini monopoly for them and let them be complacent"
Nonsense.... How do you come up with such things?
The MMEA and RMN don't have to "prove" anything; this is not what this is about. This is about turf guarding and securing the funding that comes with ones turf. Why do you think we also still have battalions of GOF? As you may be aware - or not - it was planned to do awAy with the Marine Police years ago.
Zaft - "the gov create a mini monopoly for them".
More nonsense. What "mini monopoly"?
Role duplication is unnecessary and is a waste of resources - the RMN and MMEA should be the sole entities responsible for safeguarding the coast.
Both entities are responsible for certain things and the fact that both are under equipped is the fault of the government. Are you even aware of certain happenings in ESSCOM [and before it was formed] and why at times intruders still get through? Are you aware why there has been so much resistance in doing away with the Marine Police?
Zaft - " The LMS, KM tun Fatimah & this ship cost within ballparks of one another"
That is a political issue. Don't conflate things.
KC Wong - ''So for the price of 1 Gowind, the koreans manage to build 10 4000 ton OPVs.''
- Did they have to import anything and pay for it in foreign currency?
- Did the yards have old debts incurred from the time the yard was under a different management?
- Did the yard have to pay for a production set up; ToT and other things?
- Do OPVs have fire directors; DC standards and other things?
KC Wong - ''If malaysia properly prioritize its budget, we can properly secure our seas even before 2030.''
IF Malaysia revamps its defence policy; IF we place priority on the MAF and not the local industry; IF we have continuity instead of shifting priorities and IF the average citizen starts placing more importance on defence - a lot of ''ifs'' unfortunately. BTW we can't ''prioritise'' because we have many areas in need of funding [thanks to long delayed programmes] and not enough cash allocated.
I strongly agree with the addition of assets for the marine police force to replace assets that have aged and agree very much with brother Azlan's views..