SHAH ALAM: Lumut Naval Shipyard (Lunas) announced today that KD Lekiu had been towed to the RMN naval jetty in Lumut on April 12. The shipyard had stated on February 6 stated that the ship came into the yard -six days earlier for an emergency defect repair as preparation to take part in the 2024 RIMPAC exercise in Hawaii, later this July.
Lunas stated that with the work completed she is ready to take part in the exercise. The post by Lunas:
As Lekiu was towed back on April 12, this meant her emergency repair work was completed in about three months. It is unclear what work had been done though as the shipyard and RMN had not outlined the scope. Checks on the Eperolehan website revealed that most of the tenders for Lekiu were for the purchase of spare parts of various accessories.
From the video on the Lekiu, one could also see that KD Kasturi is tied up at the shipyard jetty. This meant work on the ship – which went into a refit at Lunas in late 2021 – has not been completed. This meant that the ship had been out of service for almost three years now.
With Lekiu out for her trials, Lunas now has only KM Langkawi on the hard stand undergoing her refit. Other ships under the shipyard hard stand are the five LCS.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (43)
The only class with VLS in the fleet. Only 2 hulls with proper combatant ability (assuming the seawolf is active). How embarrassing
The only embarrassing is that Lekiu class is the best that we can send to Rimpac and even that we have to do emergency repairs to the ship. I wonder if these repairs werent so 'emergency' if it wasnt for Rimpac maybe.
Not as embarrasing as last edition of RIMPAC where RMN are only able to send 40 years old KD LEKIR to Hawaii.But then during that edition KD LEKIR sucessfully fired Exocet missile.Still its a shame really when even Philippines are sending BRP antonio Luna
firdaus - ''where RMN are only able to send 40 years old KD LEKIR to Hawaii''
You do realise that some of the USN assets there were also roughly the same age.
"Not as embarrassing as last edition of RIMPAC"
How was that embarrassing when that ship was in fighting condition and successfully fired a missile? It would have been even more embarrassing if Lekiu broke down along the way there. And age has nothing to do with embarrassment.
Others have 40 years plus ship is fine or their problem - not sure why people like to use such information as the basis to justify something unfavourable. But as mentioned in this post, while we applaud the successful refit of KD Lekiu in time for RIMPAC 2024, it seems KD Kasturi, one of 4 ships in RMN that could fire a SSM is out of commission since 2021. So RMN only has 3 ships with missiles? When KD Lekiu goes to Hawaii in July, there will only be 2 RMN ships with missiles in Malaysia. So, in a way, it qualifies as embarrassing. One good news is, given the current PM's desire to use soft power - something the NDP and DWP lists as a role of MAF - it is likely there will always be money to participate in such exercises (e.g., RIMPAC and Cobra Gold comes to mind). MAF should be able to find the small monies to participate, upgrade, fix, and buy new gear. Meaning, if RMN sends a different ship each year, then different ships may be able to get "emergency repair" funds singed off quickly. When Army went to Cobra Gold, they must have gotten some allocation quickly signed off to better represent Malaysia. Might have been the same with RMAF when they went to Pitch Black - maybe RMAF will get some small items signed off quickly if they are going in 2024.
RMAF not going to Pitch Black 2024 as Oz had announced the participation countries. We will be there as observers like in the past few years.
kua - ''not sure why people like to use such''
''Not sure'' if you're amongst the ''people'' you continue to refer to in seemingly abstract.
kua - ''One good news is, given the current PM’s desire''
It's not ''news'' or due to the current PM because for decades; in line with our policy of having some level of deterrence and not get left too far behind; we've long made it a point to participate in bilateral and multilevel exercises; exchanges [e.g. the Airman Talks' with the USAF and ASEAN Rifle Meet] as well as things like the Shangrila Dialogue and the ASEAN Defence Minister's Meet. Nothing new; merely that it's ''news'' to you ...
kua - ''something the NDP and DWP lists as a role of MAF ''
Decades before both even existed the MAF played a parallel role in terms of diplomacy; nation boilding and confidence building measures...
kua - ''it is likely there will always be money to participate in such exercises (e.g., RIMPAC and Cobra Gold comes to mind). ''
Not only is cash an issue but the availability of assets. Every asset sent is one less asset at home; assets which we have in small numbers.
''A paragraph is a series of sentences that are organized and coherent, and are all related to a single topic.''
Philippines, with their FA-50 will be going to Pitch Black for the 1st time.
As is an EU contingent led by Germany. After Pitch Black they will stop by in Malaysia before going to India.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLRmg44WIAAfdRc.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLR5yTDWoAAIaAW.jpg
Seriously thinking the gov should ditch whatever plans they have for LMS or LCS bla bla bla. IMHO adding more scorpene would be better deterrent in the SCS. Atleast 2 more Scorpene would be ideal as we have the means to train the crews & a submarine base already in active duty. Then when funds are available go for the 15-5 or CAP55 whatever they called that stuff. Imagine 3 scorpenes patrolling in packs at any given time in SCS.
Dissapointing. Perhaps the F18s are still in the shop as part of their upgrades / major maintenance. Or perhaps Pitch Black is too expensive.
Hulubalang, hopefully RMAF will have its own FA50 deployment in the 2028 edition, if the monies are available.