SHAH ALAM: At the acceptance ceremony for the four FIC G2000 Mark II at the Kota Kinabalu naval base on February 3, the headline feature touted was that the boats are fitted with the Escribano Sentinel 2.0 remote weapon station and armed with Canik M2 12.7mm QCB machine gun.

Not mentioned was that each of the FIC are also equipped with two Vektor SS-77 machine guns as it secondary weapons. Thankfully, the Eastern Fleet Command posted on Twitter and pictured the machine guns as well. Vektor is South African while the Canik is from Turkiye.

As Gading Marine Industry Sdn Bhd is supplying 13 Mark II FICs, it appears that it will also supply each boat with 13 RWS fitted with one 12.7mm machine gun and two SS-77 as well, a total of 26 as the secondary weapon, if go by the four already delivered then. It is interesting note that the six FIC also supplied by Gading for Op Benteng, are not equipped with secondary weapons even though gun mounts are also provided on them. The 13 Mark II FICs contract is RM120 million as reported here while the six for Op Benteng cost RM80 million.

The eight SS-77s already delivered marked the return of the South African made machine guns after RMN bought a batch in the early 2000s. They were supposed to supplant the FN MAG machine guns that had been used by the navy since the late 80s. Some of these SS-77s were also transferred to the MMEA when the navy divested some of its patrol craft and OPVs in 2005 and 2006.

The marine police however continue to use the FN MAGs though. It received a new batch of FN MAGs for the delivery of 10 Rigid Hull Assault Boat (RHAB) built by Dalac Marine Engineering and Services Sdn. The official delivery ceremony was held on March 14. The official police release stated the contract for the RHAB is worth RM32.8 million.

The FN MAGs are government furnished equipment however. MMEA also have similar interceptors as the marine police RHAB but the Perkasa class boats is described as the Rigid Hull Fender Boat (RHFB). Like the RHAB, the 30 boat strong RHFB was manufactured by Dalac Marine under a RM46.5 million contract.

— Malaysian Defence

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