SHAH ALAM: UK has offered Malaysia a pair of Type 23 frigates to serve as gap-fillers for the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) as the service waits for the LCS and LMS Batch 2. The first LCS and LMS Batch 2 are only expected to be commissioned into the RMN in 2026, at the earliest.
For details on the Type 23 frigate, their numbers and disposition go here. An overview of the frigates.
Malaysian Defence was told by industry sources that the offer on the Type 23s were made recently and discussions are only at a preliminary stage, and nothing has been finalized. Unfortunately, I have not been told of the monetary terms though.
It must be noted that the Type 23 is about the same age as the Lekius and we know from the links above at least three hulls are waiting for disposal. And even if they are transferred to RMN for free, they will be expensive to run even for a period of five years. RMN previously declined an offer for the River class OPV also operated by the Royal Navy.
Malaysian Defence comments:
The proposal is a long shot which is likely not to be accepted. For starters, a lot of things need to fall into place first before a single Type 23 frigate can enter service with the RMN even for a period of five years.
First, both governments must agree to the deal. Yes, it was the UK which made the proposal, but it is unclear whether the next UK government – a general election could be held at any time now – will be agreeable to the proposal. It might want to keep as many frigates as possible due to the military situation in Europe, even old ones, for example.
As for the Malaysian government, your guess is as a good as mine.
Second, the ships need to be transferred hot to the RMN, meaning they must be in active service with RN and ready to go once the Malaysian crew had been trained on them. A ship which has been retired or in long-term storage will not be a gap filler as they will need time to re-activate the vessel to full operational condition, which will cost more money.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (42)
If the pair have been recently refitted, why not? I am sure the opex for the LCS is already available this year. Just retire 2 of the Laksamanas. The pair of frigates is more useful than the Laksamanas.
My preliminary comment:
Get the Independence class LCS. Both type 23 and LCS used gas turbines + diesels. At least the LCS still have a lot of life left, and it is technically a "LCS" like the TLDM plan 😄
Copy paste my previous comment on older post
Recently US Government presented their Fiscal Year 2025 (FY2025) budget. For the US Navy, they presented a 10 ship decommissioning list. Of that, there are 6 interesting (and young) ships to be decommissioned.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIg-gOvaUAATfFw.jpg
Most probably those ships will be declared as Excess Defence Articles (EDA) and will be available for transfer for free/at cost. In all probability it could also be done as a “hot transfer”, ie the ship can be transferred immediately after decommissioning (2024-2025).
There is 2x independence class LCS
LCS-6 USS Jackson
LCS-8 (typo in pic lcs-7) USS Montgomery
4x Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV)
EPF-1 USNS Spearhead
EPF-2 USNS Choctaw County Hall
EPF-3 USNS Millinocket
EPF-4 USNS Fall River
The Independence class LCS is the same type of ship that protected Petronas West Capella from Chinese Coast Guard harrassment in 2020.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIhBxYnbMAAHQ7z.jpg
How about no..expedite that lms batch 2 deal,uparm the kedahs will still be the better choice than accepting old ships..sure uparm the kedahs will need a lot of money and type 23 still a more potent ship than kedah but at least the kedahs will serve longer for us..
The independence class LCS has common weapons with TLDM, the 57mm Bofors and also the NSM missiles.
With large hangars, helidecks, multi purpose areas, it can do many other roles, such as Scaneagle UAV mothership, MCM support, etc
There is a reason behind this IMHO. The type 23 uses Sea Ceptor SAM, therefore this will give them an advantage when the RMN chooses the SAM for the LMS.
These ships are big in displacement. Very big. Type23s having 7.3mtr draught vs 3.9mtr (nearly half) on our LCS. Even the Formidables have just 6mtr of draught so I doubt how well these can operate within our littoral waters.
please come
didn't they say they looked high and low for any ship? even offering ukraine money for their ada class?
Now start your engine lmao. even if w bit dated it'll still be the most powerful ship in rmn to date
Take it. But not for RMN, give it APMM. Make it a mother ship for APMM.
For APMM, one of the quickest way to get a mothership is to get the Japan Coast Guard PLH21 Mizuho
Just recently retired (April 2024)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D-3CkIPUwAAsyku.jpg
Already removed all JCG markings
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLo54nRaAAAWrIe.jpg
As far as I know an offer was also made years ago during the same time Chile was made the offer. We turned it firm due to the costs associated with maintenance. The Type 23s of not mistaken have an electric drive for ASW.
Given the number of issues the USN faced with the Independence I doubt if we’d want them. They are also notoriously high on upkeep.