SHAH ALAM: Back in early May, Malaysian Defence reported that the RMN has officially taken delivery of KD Perkasa, pennant number 3512 after it completed the Obsolescence Programme Plus (OP) on May 9. Perkasa underwent the OP with a re-hulling which Malaysian Defence is calling the OP Plus.
The OP Plus is the culmination of the FAC fleet upgrade programme as it combined the two other aspects of the initiative – repowering (changing the powerpack, propellors and generators) and with new hull and modifications to general arrangement of the ship.
Malaysian Defence also stated that Perkasa has not been fitted with the EO turret and other capabilities as her sister ships, KD Gempita and KD Pendekar. And stated that it is likely to be done under a different contract.
And that different contract is now likely to be undertaken soon as the Defence Ministry has issued a quotation notice for the modification on Perkasa. The public portion of the notice did not say anything much apart that it was looking for quotation for the modification work.
The QN was published on June 5 and closes on June 12, a period of seven days. I assuming that the modification will be like the ones done on Gempita and Pendekar. As reported at LIMA 2023,
Prime Minister DS Anwar Ibrahim launched Malaysian first homegrown, combat management system (CMS) at the System Consultancy Services (SCS) Sdn Bhd show case at the Mahsuri Interntational Exhibition Centre on May 24.
The CMS was designed, developed, tested, and commissioned by SCS team of engineers and technologies. Anwar was given a hand-on demonstration of a mock-up of the CMS.
The research and development of the CMS started in 2019 when SCS was granted a proof-of-concept project to develop the indigenous system onboard KD Gempita, originally a Spica-M fast attack craft missile.
–Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (33)
Really then the only thing carried over from the OG ship is the main gun. Innovation is the mother of all necessities.
Since the hull design is of indigenous design, could it be more useful for MMEA or Polis Marin as a template for coastal patrol boats? Arm with 25/30mm RWS, MG stations, a small deck for VTOL drone usage.
Its up to the Marine police to decide what they want really. I do not think they will want to be shoe horne into something
Sad, while our neighbour are getting brand new ships, we have to rely on an upgraded 40 year old ship.
Kamal- “Sad, while our neighbour are getting brand new ships”
Some of our neighbours are still operating ships which are 40 years old and some still have even older ships.
Also note that the USN still operates ships constructed in the 1980’s.
Navy ship without main radar? Wow thats the first for me..We really are out of time..Beyond shoestring..Doesnt need long range radar tbh for this kind of ship something like thales mw08 will do..But then maybe even that we cant afford now..or maybe they thought its illogical to put brand new radar on 40 years old ship
Hopefully we'll see these missile boats be rearmed with missiles.
Unlikely
What missile?
If they're looking to equip these boats with missile menhan wouldn't gonna bother with both LMSB2 and NGPV rearmament
Old is old. No matter how its rehulled, rebuild, reconstituted, redesigned, its still an old ship - old design, old concept, ill suited for what the Navy is asked to do in 2023, etc. People ought not to be overtly positive about it, otherwise some decision maker might thing rehulling is such a brilliant idea, upgrading the rehulled ships is such a brilliant idea. No, its not. Keep it simple, keep it as minimally functional as possible. Put the money on shipbuilding programs that are more criticial.
“Hopefully we’ll see these missile boats be rearmed with missiles”
As has been explained on numerous occasions there are no such plans for the simple reason that the cash would be put to better use elsewhere. The intention is to perform whatever works which are needed to keep the ships operational for certain types of duties until they can finally be retired.
“Navy ship without main radar? Wow thats the first for me..We really are out of time..Beyond shoestring”
It will be fitted with a radar at a later date. Hold your horses before jumping to conclusions. I can’t think of a single RMN ship which has no radar; whether MCMVs or Tunas Samudera. Some don’t have primary search radars but they have navigation radars ...
Kel - “Old is old. No matter how its rehulled, rebuild, reconstituted, redesigned, its still an old ship – old design, old concept, ill suited for what the Navy is asked to do in 2023, etc”
Well we often hear the claim that all the recent works has resulted in a “as good as new ship” which is not what I’ve heard from the proverbial “horses mouth”.
As for your “old concept” FACs are intended for sea denial in the littorals and this is what MTBs/PTs/ S-Boots did in WW2 and why navies got FACs in large numbers in the 1960’s when the idea of a small and cheap missile boat which could sink larger ships was appealing. We on the other hand used FACs for a role they weren’t designed or suited for : extended EEZ patrols.
That’s the reason why the RMN sees no need for any more FACs and why at minimum it seeks a corvette sized design - better range, seakeeping, endurance and more deck space.
Note that the USN had the Pegasus class Harpoon armed FACs which were binned and littoral navies like the Greek navy; Swede navy and Bundersmarine saw great need for them.
Kel - “. Keep it simple, keep it as minimally functional as possible”
As has been discussed to death; a trade off has to be made with regards to how much one wants to spend on aged assets as opposed to saving the cash for newer ones [this will not stop people however from claiming the FACs and other ages assets with no growth potential should be upgraded]..
Take the Laksamana; someone in the know told me about a plan to refill the class in 2014 and was incredulous. It was a feasibility which was never expected to be undertaken. As far bs k as a decade ago the RMN was already hesitant in spending beyond the bare minimum because it wasn’t deemed a good return of investment to do otherwise..
Paragraphs.
"Put the money on shipbuilding programs that are more criticial."
That is what their doing. The money used for OP is coming from OE fund so means the DE funds for new ships are untouched and hence this innovative way has enabled them to continue using "old" ships while saving money for LCS, LMS2, MRSS, etc.