SHAH ALAM: ECM for PV17 Squadron. It appears that the six ships of Patrol Vessel (PV) 17 Squadron will be getting a new Radar-Electronic Support Measures (RESM) equipment. PV17 Squadron is the formal name for the six-strong Kedah class ships, namely KD Kedah (171); KD Pahang (172); KD Perak (173); KD Terengganu (174); KD Kelantan (175) and KD Selangor (176).
A MTO tender to ship the new RESM was published by the Eperolehan website on January 3 and closes on January 10. The new RESM will be shipped directly to the RMN Kota Kinabalu naval base in Sabah and RMN Tanjung Gelang base in Kuantan where the six ships are home ported. Four of the ships are based in Kota Kinabalu while another two in Kuantan.
RMN had wanted to base all six ships in Kota Kinabalu initially but the lack of family quarters at the base had prevented this.
The public portion of the MTO tender did not identify from where the new RESM will be shipped, so we will have to guess the make and type. Fortunately thanks to our regular reader, Mike, now we know that the RESM is the Teledyne Phobos.
One would have thought that that it will be the Thales Vigile 100 Mark 2, the same RESM which were also installed on the Lekiu class and contracted for the LCS.
Anyhow, the tender to supply, install and commissioned of the new ESM was awarded to Tanahair Technologies Sdn Bhd with a LOA of RM23 million. The tender was issued in June/July 2021.
Meanwhile, KD Kasturi (25) which entered a refit programme at the Boustead Naval Shipyard in March 2021, has not returned to service just yet. She was seen berthed near the BNS yard at the recent Western fleet open base. The picture showed that she was still under wraps with scaffoldings around her main superstructure.
It is likely her refit was delayed as she was dry-docked at BNS while the country was still facing restrictions due to the pandemic. It is likely that they had done her harbour trials but with all the wrapping and scaffoldings it is unlikely she had been out for sea trials. This is her first refit since undergoing a SLEP in around 2010 and completed in 2014. The post on the Kasturi SLEP is among those that went missing following the Malaysian Defence server failure several years back.
The Kasturi-class SLEP and its cost – RM750 million – was one of the catalysts for RMN to develop the 15-to-5 plan. The service did not want to spend so much money ever again to prolong the life of its ships. The irony is that due to the SLEP, Kasturi and her sister ship, KD Lekir, remained as the only combatant vessels in the RMN.
*updated of the type and make of the RESM
— Malaysian Defence
View Comments (12)
If LCS are using the same RESM, might as well cannibalise it for the Kedahs and allocate the new ones to it.
Giving Kasturi SLEP to BNS was already a bad idea since knowing of their issues with LCS. Thanks to them, we now unlikely to get neither Kasturi nor LCS anytime soon.
Could it be that the R-ESM to be fitted to the Kedahs are actually the exact hardware already bought and paid for the LCS Gowinds?
IMO a good idea to fit something we already bought on ships we already have. The Gowinds, if proceed could be fitted with a much newer version of the same R-ESM in the future.
Unlikely as the ones for the LCS were procured from another supplier
Ah ok
The Kasturi SLEP was given ahead of the LCS contract signing in 2014. The current one is just a refit
"The irony is that due to the SLEP, Kasturi and her sister ship, KD Lekir, remained as the only combatant vessels in the RMN."
What happened to KD Jebat and KD Lekiu sir?
They are still in service
Yeah i guess so..Could be RESM that being bought for LCS but we could be wrong of course..Logically we should equip our most capable combatant which is LCS with a brand new or newer version RESM..At least the kedahs are getting something new..This plus that new FCEO/FCR on 4 kedahs.The only thing that missing now is a new surface search radar for them..
So its not the Thales Vigile
The cost of just RM23 million for 6 ships means each system costs less than USD1 million for each ship.
Boleh tanya apakah kewajaran untuk SLEP kelas Kasturi yang hampir berusia 40 tahun? Tidakkah lebih bagus peruntukkan itu digunakan untuk memasang misil ke atas kapal Kelas Kedah yang hullnya lebih muda dan hampir sama saiz dengan kelas Kasturi?