SHAH ALAM: The two RMN training ships, Gagah Samudera and Teguh Samudera, are expected to be commissioned into service early next year. The commissioning ceremony will be held for both ships at the same time when work on Teguh Samudera is completed by year end.
RMN Assistant Chief of Staff Human Resources Rear Admiral Azhari Abdul Rashid says the ceremony is expected to be held in January once work on Teguh is completed. He says the two ships would be commissioned as the legal problems that had prevented them from doing so had been resolved. He did not explained how the legal problems were resolved.
Malaysian Defence has written extensively on the problems of the two training ships previously.
Both training vessels were assembled at the NGV Tech shipyard from modules delivered by DSME of South Korea. Gagah Samudera was launched on Dec 14, 2012 while Teguh Samudera on Feb 27, 2013. Both were supposed to be commissioned within six months. Both ships remained incomplete and un-commissioned as NGV Tech was foreclosed by Maybank sometime in 2013. NGV Tech signed the RM294 million contract with RMN for the construction of the training vessels at LIMA 2011.
Gagah is already used to train sailors since it was handed over to the RMN on Mar. 1, this year. Teguh remained at Grade One Marine shipyard for completion. For more on the training ship saga, read them here here. As I had reported before that the ships were supposed to be commissioned this year, let’s hope time around, they will be officially inducted into the RMN fleet as stated.
Meanwhile, Rear Adm. Azhari when met in Bangkok on Nov. 6, says the commissioning of Gagah and Teguh will not mean the end of KD Hang Tuah, the RMN’s current training ship. He says Hang Tuah will be kept in commission though she will be turned into a museum ship just like the Royal Navy ship, HMS Belfast. Hang Tuah will be the centre piece of the new RMN’s museum to be located in Lumut, says Azhari. As she remained in commission, the RMN will be responsible for her up-keep.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated development, it appears that the LCS could be fitted with any type of lightweight torpedo chosen by RMN. As you might remember some time back Malaysian Defence reported that UK-based J+S company announced that it had been awarded the torpedo launcher and handling system for the LCS. J+S has been taken over by another UK-based company, SEA, earlier this year.
SEA issued a press release recently.
SEA has recently won an order to provide Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) in South Korea with Torpedo Launcher Systems (TLS) for two new frigates being built for the Philippines Navy and is also engaged in providing TLS and weapons handling systems for a new class of Combatant Ships under construction for Malaysia. This follows the supply of a TLS for the Royal Thai Navy’s latest frigate, which was built by DSME in South Korea. One of the major benefits of SEA’s TLS is that they can be configured to fire any NATO standard light weight torpedo, enabling operators to benefit from the flexibility of choosing the best weapon independently and the option of re-configuring during the life of the ship. The modular nature of the SEA TLS also means that by utilising a common tube selection panel as part of the combat management system the fire control electronics can be adapted to interface with the ship’s decoy launchers as well as the TLS.
I am not a betting man but if I was, I would placed my money on RMN selecting the Leonardo A224S lightweight torpedo for the LCS. The A224S is the current lightweight torpedo of the RMN though I am not sure whether the ones in stock remained active or not.
If not they could still be refurbished for use on the LCS, other frigates, the Lekiu and Kasturi classes and the Super Lynx helicopters. Otherwise the RMN could always order new ones for the LCS while remaining compatible with other ships and Super Lynx. (The helicopter-borne version (pictured above) is slightly longer to accommodate a parachute to slow down its splash speed and give it the necessary pitch and stability. When it touches the sea, the parachute gets detached)
Buying a completely new torpedo for the LCS will mean that they will need to be qualified on the other ships and probably the Super Lynx as well.
As for the other major equipment on the LCS, RMN has come up with a very detailed graphic on them (above). Malaysian Defence has also written on them extensively in the past though some were lost when the server crashed two years back.
In other news, it was announced on Nov. 9, the UAE is buying two Gowind corvettes with another pair as options. The ships will likely be in the same class as Egyptian corvette as they will be armed with Exocets and ESSM.
— Malaysian Defence
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Great news all around!
At last those training ships will be commisioned.
Great news too for KD Hang Tuah! A great effort for the retainment of historical items significant to the history of Malaysia as a nation. Hopefully they will keep it in operational (ie sailable) condition like the thai navy HMTS Pin Klao. BTW what they could do if want to reuse the hang tuah name is to rename the ship as KD Hang Tuah 1977, with a new ship later just the KD Hang Tuah. UK royal navy just did this with the historic ship HMS Belfast in London, becoming the HMS Belfast 1938, with a brand new Type 26 frigate to be also named the HMS Belfast.
Btw my comment in the mrca article is stuck…
Marhalim,
With all this excitement about the MPA and M109 and LG105,
is there any further news about the MRSS?
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Non actually as the MRSS was only given planning approval. With this they can form a technical committee to sort out the requirements. Most likely funding will only be approved after 2020
Malaysia order 6 LCS Gowind, Egypt order was 4 ships and UAE just order 2 ships..the total Gowind will be in service equal to 12..wow..laku keras ini product..
Is there any plan to equip first batch LMS with ASW suit?like sonar and torpedo launcher?
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No
… – ” Hopefully they will keep it in operational (ie sailable) condition like the thai navy HMTS Pin Klao.”
Even assuming spares are available I doubt either the RMN or a private company would want to keep her ”operational”; just too much money and cost involved. In the event a private company gets a contract to convert her into a floating museum we should count our lucky stars if the company has the needed cash and know how to keep her in good condition.
Hang tuah can remain for use by rotu cadets
From what marhalim said, KD Hang Tuah is to be kept as a comissioned ship within TLDM fleet, so it is not going to be given to a private company. As a commisioned ship, it should have a ship captain and crews to man it (this could probably be a mix of active, reserve and retired navy personnels). As it is designed, the ship has very few electronic equipments, as it was designed for a low tech navy in africa (ghana) and was fitted out more like a personal yacht for ghana’s dictator at the time. It had new diesel engines fitted in the late 90s.
The navy should ask BHIC to refit the ship as an offset for all the LCS/LMS contract given to them. This should not cost much. 1 time thorough refit would enable the ship to last 20-30 more years in very light use sailing as a historical ship
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As like HMS Belfast the Hang Tuah will no longer go sailing once it is turned into a museum ship. Perhaps it will have a honorary captain as they are many reserve ones already
Marhalim,
HMS Belfast is not a comissioned ship. It has already been retired, like the KD Rahmat.
Google for USS Constitution. That is what a commisioned ship should be like, with a current captain and crew. I hope that KD Hang Tuah will be like that ship, or the HMTS Pin Klao, that is still an operational ship.
As much as it is nice, we don’t have funds for a museum ship in sailing condition and we don’t have so many ROTU cadets to keep the ship in economical use.
Also while some navies deliberately train their sailors and officers on ships from a bygone era, this is a luxury we can’t afford on our budget.
@ AM
Well IMO the issues i raise about KD Hang Tuah is just a want, not really a need.
But leaving the ship “comissioned” without it being a functional ship is in the long run will ultimately destroy the ship. Just look at what happened to KD Rahmat and KD Sri Teengganu. You know how malaysian maintenance culture is by looking at those 2 sad ships. So by being a funtional ship it has to be taken care of and be as ship shape as it can be. That in itself safeguards its longivity.
Funds can be had by putting offset clauses in new projects to fund the restoration/upkeep of historic ships/aircrafts/APCs.
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Both Rahmat and Terengganu were already decommissioned when they were handed over to their current owners. That’s the reason want to keep Hang Tuah commission so it will be responsible for it. That said I am not sure whether RMN has fully understand the financial implications of doing it so.
What can be done is to have a special PSSTLDM for KD Hang Tuah to maintain the ship. Retired crews from KD Hang Tuah also should be encouraged to serve on the ship, alongside active crews, so that they could tell the history of the ship to visitors.
It could become a museum ship that able to sail to different places for all malaysians to visit, not a static ship. Probably it could sail to penang, langkawi, melaka, johor bahru, kuantan, kuala terengganu, kuching, labuan, kota kinabalu, sandakan etc etc. At each town there would be various interaction with school kids and university students to instill patriotism in young malaysians.
I think that is a worthwhile money to be spent by the government.
“Both Rahmat and Terengganu were already decommissioned when they were handed over to their current owners.”
Is KD Sri Terengganu owner by the museum? Who owns the museum? I always thought it was the navy.
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The RMN museum in Malacca comes under Jabatan Muzium Malaysia though the current owner of the ship as reported previously as Perbadanan Muzium Melaka
The RMN museum in melacca is owned by the state government. It is in pretty bad condition. The people assigned there has 0 interest in anything about the navy (tanya semuanya jawab sorry saya tak tahu). The displays are all over, lots of info on current orbats and details (which is quite surprising) but almost zero info on historical events. IMO better close the museum, and return all the historical artifacts back to TLDM.
The best museum there (around melacca town) IMO is the customs museum. Manned by customs personnel, very good displays and information.
…,
Rahmat was originally intended to maintained by the RMN but eventually a private company got the contact. I suspect the same might happen with Hang Tuah. Keeping a ship afloat is great but it involves major upkeep/maintenance. I was on the Belfast in 1993, was worth the visit. The year before I visited the Averoff; a WW2 Greek cruiser moored at Piraeus. In both cases there was the cash and the will to keep both ships in good condition and the fact that both ships have more history than the Rahmat and Hang Tuah and the potential to draw in more paying customers and secure private sponsorship.
With us, it’s a different matter, the RMN in the long run doesn’t have the resources [it doesn’t even have the resources to man the archives/historical section at Pulau Indah with the needed people] and a private company in the long run might not make enough cash [even if it had the know how] to do what’s needed – that’s the problem.