SHAH ALAM: The Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) has transferred the first of two Fearless class patrol vessels to the Royal Brunei Navy (RBN) in a ceremony at the Changi naval base on March 15. The As Siddiq left for Brunei following the handing over ceremony.
From the pictures of the ceremony, the As Siddiq was delivered without the Oto Melara 76mm main gun and the Mark 38 Mod 2 25mm guns. It is likely they will be rearmed when they arrived in Brunei.
From RSN:
A milestone to remember!
This morning, we held a ceremony to commemorate the handing over of one of our refurbished Fearless-class Patrol Vessels (PV) to the Royal Brunei Navy (RBN). It is the first of the two PVs that are being transferred to the RBN.
The ceremony was jointly officiated by our Chief of Defence Force LG Melvyn Ong and Commander Royal Brunei Armed Forces MG Dato Paduka Seri Haji Muhammad Haszaimi bin Bol Hassan.
“The Fearless-class PVs have protected the Singapore Strait for more than two decades. I hope that the vessels will serve the RBN well and enhance the maritime defence of Brunei for the coming years. As we celebrate the transfer of vessels today, I am confident that the relationship between the Singapore Armed Forces and the Royal Brunei Armed Forces will continue to grow from strength to strength as well.” – LG Ong
The other Fearless class PV to be gifted to Brunei will be named as KDB Al Faruq once commissioned into the RBN. Both As Siddiq and Al Faruq were previously named RSS Brave and RSS Gallant in RSN. They were both decommissioned from RSN in 2019 and 2020.
— Malaysian Defence
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US Navy also has planned to decommissioned around 39 naval ship.. such as their LSD USS Tortuga.. any planned to acquire one or two ships? since the last biggest ship is Inderapura.. from US Navy.. might helps to cater Spratly area..
Not just the gun it seem most of the instruments on the mast are missing as well.
Would RBN used it as an OPV or they going to installed some torpedoes too as well?
I think they removed all the Israeli made equipment from the ship. Likely as an OPV.
I dont think so on the US Navy ships. It is better if we get the other four Fearless class ships and stationed them in Sandakan
Fearless class ships only service 20+ years, they are still in good shape. Hope we can get it not for RMN also for APMM. Do we have this good relationship to get FOC?
Hyde,
Something like the USS Tortuga would cost an arm and leg to operate and would be an overkill for our requirements. Sure the USN has various ships that are being retired and might be available for transfer but will be cost prohibitive to operate and sustain.
On the RBN the question I’m interested is where/how did they manage to get the manpower. The RBN is a very small navy and even the army struggled to raise a third battalion in the 1990’s due to manpower issues.
Yes, even Brunei could get them for free…
Theres no way our navy would want SQ ships as (the previous gov and its slew of agents or traitors) may not find it “profitable” to do so. However by all means i hope i am proven wrong. I once talked to the big boss himself (i shoild say who) about bruneian FS boats (which the indons now have) and he said he recommended it for our navy but the gov lets just say wasnt keen.
The agents would have been keen as surely we had to replace the Israeli made stuff on board the ships. As for the Nakhoda Ragam, the government wasn’t keen on it as the RMN was only partially keen it so it was not good enough.
Shahrudin – ”but the gov lets just say wasnt keen.”
One of the reasons – there were a few – was due to BAE Systems.
Basically if there is a chance to get brand new, neither the TLDM nor MMEA will want to accept used boats. Basically any of our branch services for that matter.