SHAH ALAM: SGPV – Laksamana – LCS. Since the recent brouhaha over the LCS, many Malaysian Defence readers have asked in the comments section on what had happened in the past. Actually Malaysian Defence has written various posts on the issue from when the ship was called the Second Generation Patrol Vessel (SGPV) before it was renamed as the Littoral Combat Ship.
A close-up of the BNS Gowind frigate when it was first shown at LIMA 2011.
I had called it the Laksamana class previously as they were too many Laksamanas – those in service or retired, around six I believed – who somehow were involved directly or indirectly in the planning, selection of the design and equipment and building processes . Laksamana story.
A model of an upgraded Kedah class by Boustead meant for the SGPV/LCS programme
Anyhow, the Defence Ministry and RMN started calling the ship as LCS around 2012 after various commentators asked why are they spending billions of ringgit on a bunch of patrol ships when others only paid smaller amounts for similar vessels. Of course these commentators were muddying the waters as those patrol boats they were referring to were simply 44 meter or smaller boats meant for coast guards (like the MMEA NGPC) unlike the SGPV.
KM Bagan Datuk sailing near Port Klang. The patrol boat is build by Destini subsidiary, Destini Shipbuilding and Engineering. APMM
The SGPV it must be noted came after the Kedah class, the so called New Generation Patrol Vessel, a 27 class vessel planned by the RMN to replace the Vosper patrol craft and the FACs. The NGPVs were supposed to be bigger than those two type of vessels for better seakeeping and endurance.
Two Kedah class, KD Kelantan (175) and KD Selangor (176) berthed at Lumut jetty in early 2014. The ship on the other side is KD Mahawangsa. Malaysian Defence
It became the Kedah class – a bigger and more expensive than the original NGPV as envisaged by the RMN, when the government awarded the project to PSC-NDSB, the forerunner of Boustead Naval Shipyard, which was tasked in salvaging the project after the former ran out of money due to nefarious reasons, leaving the ships uncompleted.
The LMS is similar in size and capability the planned original NGPV
See the story here. Please read the Malaysian Defence archives for more stories on the SGPV and the LCS for the context of the current situation.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (87)
It does seems like a disservice to BNS. They had successfully rescued NGPV (In your article above your referencing the 44 mtr boat should have been MMEA NGPC not NGPV).
Anyways, they seemed to have proven they could do the job so the LCS would had naturally fell to them, unfortunately sh!t happened again. A different sh!t nonetheless.
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Getting the next big job was part of the deal to take over the yard. If they find a new company to replace Boustead it will also want guarantees it will secure the next job otherwise why do it, salvage the LCS,
It is Time The Goverment have to stop Building at our Own Country. Let the Experts like Naval Group Settle it.
"guarantees it will secure the next job"
That was supposed to be LMS, but that went sideways. Haha. Well since we did went China for LMS, and for goodness sake we sorely need more of them, let the Chinese shipbuilder take over BNS with the guarantee of LMS to be built there (as originally envisioned) on the conditions they must be equal equity partners, there will be tech transfer & local jobs, and infused it with professional management.
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That's like putting the fox in the chicken coop
@ marhalim
" If they find a new company to replace Boustead it will also want guarantees it will secure the next job otherwise why do it, salvage the LCS "
Of course. A carrot that can be dangled to prospective parties to salvage the current 6 LCS is to give them assurance that a gowind batch 2 will also be given to them in RMK13 2026-2030. A watertight contract for completing thr 6 LCS plus say 3 more ships in batch 2, with heavy penalties if the batch 2 is not build according to the project timeline by all parties (contractors and the government), and incentives if the ships are completed ahead of plan.
Anyway what you written above still does not explain why the project became a failure that it is right now. There is no issue to me if there is 100 former laksamanas having inputs into the programme. What i want to know is which laksamana who meddled with the program and insisted changes after the project has stated build.
Simple really..bns doesnt have the capability to build lcs/stealth frigates from day 1..just because they rescue kedah class ( not really cuz kedah's obnoxious price with bare minimum gun ), doesnt mean they are capable to build anything thrown at them..
So in a way bns can kiss another contract goodbye already..just curious why nobody report them to sprm yet..i believed someone from patriot already lodged a report once last year but many malaysians laughed at him citing he was misinformed but my my he is right in some other way..
"That’s like putting the fox in the chicken coop"
But should we stop them coming? I mean, they are already here with Geely/Proton, CSC Steel, ERCL, KTM new trains, Penang Port & Penang Tunnel & PTMP, Iskandar & Forest City, Bandar Malaysia, possibly HSR in future, etc. We can't avoid them so why not we deal with them in a professional businesslike way? Moreso if its their own LMS that are getting build here as I proposed, it wouldn't benefit them in terms of intel gleaned.
@...
With current economic conditions, highly unlikely we would start for LCS batch 2 or any other type of high end ships in the foreseeable future, maybe in 5-10 years time. The LMS is all we can afford now (with reasonable price reduction), and one that we can sustain the build rate with volume buys.
@Firdaus
I just wonder what is your measurable yardstick to say they lack the technical capability to build modern warships ie LCS.
I m not agreed this project passed to the Chinese firm, just past it to original contractors @Naval Group since their can manage it...
@ joe
” highly unlikely we would start for LCS batch 2 or any other type of high end ships in the foreseeable future, maybe in 5-10 years time ”
RMK13 2026-2030 is exactly 5-10 years time from now.
Right now what we need to concentrate upon is to quickly finish the 6 Gowinds, and put more emphasis on building up MMEA OPV fleet as quickly as possible.
@fadiman
If its to complete the Maharajalelas, sure. But then what's next? Like Marhalim said, if there is nothing on the plate, why would Naval bother to come here? Do they have super cheap LMS type ship we could be interested?
@...
Keep in mind if BNS2.0 can finish all 6 ships in 3 years time, what are their staffs & workers gonna do for the next 7 years waiting LCS batch 2? There is no continuity unless my proposal is to do more LMS in BNS yard (as originally planned) until we can go for more LCS or whatever.