Original Winner of the NGPC

SHAH ALAM: Original Winner of the NGPC. In one of my posts about the search for the New Generation Patrol Craft for the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), I mentioned that a re-tender was held after the other bidders complained about the winner.

Since then I have also reported that a Fassmer design have been selected for the project and the contract is expected to be signed in LIMA 15 next month.

What was never revealed so far was the original winner of the NGPC tender. Industry sources have informed me that the original winner was a China designed boat, most likely a derivative of the Snake class patrol vessels of the Ghana Navy.

GNS Ehwor, one of the four Snake class patrol boats of the Ghana Navy. Ghana Information Ministry
GNS Ehwor, one of the four Snake class patrol boats of the Ghana Navy. Ghana Information Ministry

The 46.8m Snake patrol boats were ordered from China’s Poly Technologies subsidiary of China Poly Group Corporation in 2011 and delivered in October 2011. The boats, built at the Qingdao Qianjin Shipyard were commissioned on 21 February 2012.

According to reports, the four patrol boats, fitted with modern navigation equipment and fitted with two decks guns, costs some US$68 million.

GNS Garinga, one of the Snake class patrol boats.
GNS Garinga, one of the Snake class patrol boats.

Apart from the four Snake class boats, the Ghana Navy also operates a mixture of patrol boats retired by Germany, South Korea and the United States.

— Malaysian Defence

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Shah Alam

1 Comment

  1. Api69 says:
    February 13, 2015 at 9:43 am

    Agree with Azlan. No need military spec. Mild steel hull with splinter protection here and there (if really deemed necessary) would be more than enough. A bit heavier in the water but not much payload to worry about. Just a gun at the foc’sle and a few GPMGs or HMGs…..
    … says:
    February 13, 2015 at 8:51 am

    On the Chinese boat topic, recently Nigeria’s new 1800t Chinese opv (a modified type 056 corvette with helicopter hangar) just reached its home port in Nigeria. 2units of the 90m+ 1800t opv was bought for a total of usd42mil. A similar ship if procured for the rmn missile corvette requirement would surely cost no more than usd150mil for 6 ships, which is less than half the cost of a single gowind frigate. A similar design opv is in service with the royal thai navy, with western engines, equipment and weapons.

    http://image02w.seesaawiki.jp/n/2/namacha2/ba5ab4aa24717f83.jpg
    azlan says:
    February 12, 2015 at 8:43 pm

    Nimitz,

    What is your definition of “military spec”? And why do you think these boats should have “military spec”.

    At the end of the day, these boats are intended to perform low threat, peacetime constabulary type duties
    There is no need at all for “military spec” as it’s simply not needed.
    Api69 says:
    February 8, 2015 at 10:59 pm

    What I have been told is that there was never a re-tender. Tender was sent out, then tender was cancelled, then news broke that DMS got thru direct award. Haha! Go figure!
    posu says:
    February 7, 2015 at 10:42 am

    It’s DMS that brought the Fassmer design. It started with tender, then retender and finally direct nego after the tender exercise cancelled. Know who is more important than know how in Malaysia. Bravo.
    RedSot says:
    February 7, 2015 at 12:31 am

    Is this china poly is the one supplying precision machinery of small arms parts to one of the glc company that supply atm with m4?if it is so than all the questions why buy chinese have been answered……it all in the name of business…

    Reply
    Thats another subsidiary.
    Zaidi says:
    February 6, 2015 at 11:56 pm

    The local naval architects can readily design a Fassmer equivalent and the local yards do have the capability to fabricate it, The problem is with “proven” design. With towing tank data, we can get the resistance of the hull and for model seakeeping, we can even send for model testing to Netherlands or other countries with sea keeping test tank. But all these are still model data. Actual performance may vary and these development work takes time, perhaps 36 months lead time before keel laying. This has been age old argument, design vs buy ready platform. With the numerous hulls manufactured by Fassmer, we can be confident that the design is reliable enough. The testing costs and risks are hidden….the first boat carries all these. In short, for the few hulls that we gonna have, perhaps it is wise to go for the Fassmer.
    … says:
    February 6, 2015 at 9:10 pm

    @ savvykl

    The price I quoted is the price paid for the 5009 by Cape Verde.
    nimitz says:
    February 6, 2015 at 8:57 pm

    I believe they already checked out all potential local shipyard’s designs, and they found out nobody came up with a good design.

    Snake-class PC by the look of it is not so far off than Diana-class, and seems good enuf to me. Is there something not right with the Snake?

    Are we sure NGPC is military spec built? Hard to say until we can see the final product.
    Ferret says:
    February 6, 2015 at 8:03 pm

    I’ve just read an impressive report put out by MIGHT regarding the maritime sector: http://www.might.org.my/en/SiteAssets/SBSR%202013%20v2.pdf

    I’ve got to ask this question: Can’t a local shipyard design the NGPC for APMM? Why must it be foreign designed? Way back one of the local shipyards built one of the OPVs (Musytari or Marikh, I can’t remember which) for the RMN (and subsequently passed down to APMM). Surely we’ve progressed far enough to design a 40 metre boat for policing duties in our own EEZ?

    I can understand getting foreign systems and weapons because we can’t make some of them for the boat, but the design?

    APMM boats can be built to commercial specs which make them cheaper; cheaper boats mean more of them which is what APMM need. But just in case some worry about using commercial specs for a “gunboat”, look at HMS Ocean.
    stanman says:
    February 6, 2015 at 7:19 pm

    Gaya mahu, kalah tak apa is alive and well. Nothing ever changes.
    SavvyKL says:
    February 6, 2015 at 5:34 pm

    …says…
    Damen stan patrol 5009 ships cost 30 million each… than there design can’t put rescue container and operation Scan Eagle UAV.
    just impossible Damen 5009 sell in euro 11 million.
    wait and see official graphic design for new NGPC。
    kamal says:
    February 6, 2015 at 3:28 pm

    Well based on the current depreciation of the ringgit and Chinese products being 20% (at least) cheaper than the western counterparts, it may be an option but whether long term it will be a viable one remain to be seen. Buying cheap is one advantage but whether it can last as long as the western counterpart and lower overall operational cost would also need to be considered, among others
    karim says:
    February 6, 2015 at 2:57 pm

    Why are we choosing this ships of all better ships available in the market? The ship doesn’t look “cool” and “intimidating” at all….
    RedSot says:
    February 6, 2015 at 1:35 pm

    For once let see how good n sturdy these chinese pv..evaluate n then apmm or the navy can buy more of these origin from china vessel be it patrol vessel…covette frigate or lpd…if its good enough for the international market its good enough for apmm n navy…excluding the equipment that is
    … says:
    February 6, 2015 at 12:24 pm

    East Timor china poly tech ships (ignore the picture name)

    http://image.hdstockphoto.com/pics/previews/e0b/east-timor-to-acquir-south-koran-navy-patrol-boats-2604616.jpg
    … says:
    February 6, 2015 at 11:41 am

    The 50m damen stan patrol 5009 ships cost similar to the chinese patrol ships at about 11mil euro each. How much is the price of those fassmer designs?

    Reply
    Going by the amount of the budget of the NGPC, it will be around that figure also.
    … says:
    February 6, 2015 at 11:38 am

    The same patrol boat as Ghana is also used currently by Timor leste.

    Reply
    Ghana bought brand new ones, Timor Leste got old one

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