LANGKAWI: Ships Update, LMS and LCS Work on the first LMS is expected to start in May. The work is to be undertaken by Boustead partner, China Shipbuilding and Offshore International Ltd, in one of it shipyards in China.
Under the RM1.17 billion contract, two of the LMS will be built in China while the other two in Malaysia, most likely in Lumut. The first two are expected to be ready by 2020 followed by the other locally built ones in 2021.
And yes while the LMS model looked very empty for a four-ship RM.1.17 billion contract, the navy has an explaination for it.
The LMS is the fourth class of the RMN #15to5 Fleet Transformation Programme which will also provide opportunities for local defence industries as the project progresses. Adopting the ‘Fit for Purpose’ and ‘Mission Module Capable’, LMS capabilities are elevated to the next level and will be able to fulfill RMN benign missions
Meanwhile, work on the first LCS is progressing well and both RMN and Boustead officials said that they were hopeful that it could be launched in August. Production difficulties which was encountered are being overcome and the shipyard was making progress.
The progress comes as DCNS is reporting that the first Gowind 2500 corvette build for Egypt has successfully undergone its maiden sea trials. With the completion of the sea trials, the ship is well on its way to be delivered to the Egyptian Navy.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (19)
The rm1.17 billion question is, are all those capabilities included in that price or not?
Just my two cents, in my opinion....the shape of the Chinese made LMS doesn't really break any new grounds.It sucks!
*Looking at 2nd picture*
...Where will they put those missiles on the LMS? O.o
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Enough space for two or fout SSM launchers just before the RHIB stern well
From the photo, "LMS capabilities" RMN, the 1.17 fulus paid for the 4 ships will exclude the Mission modules which is under Future Acquisitions and SSM which is under Future Enhancement.
That a Whooper $ per ship!
LMS sounds like a ripoff. You could buy a similar sized patrol vessel from a reputable Western shipyard for 1/3rd the price (i.e. under US$20 million each).
Given Boustead's relationships in France, I wonder why they didn't partner with any of the 3 big French players who are competitive on the export market for small patrol vessels:
- Ocea (OPV 190, also OSV190 used by Indonesia)
- DCNS/Piriou (OPV 50, l'Adroit)
- Socarenam (OPVs for the French and Belgian navies, La Confiance and Castor classes)
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The decision to get the boats from China came first before Boustead got into the picture. My guess if it was Boustead proposal in the first place, it would have been a down size version of the Kedah class. This was supposed to be their proposal for the MMEA OPV if it was not through the direct tender route. However it is unlikely they can get it to be as cheap as the Damen design unless they opted to low spec it to commercial standards
Damen design for MMEA only cost RM738.9m, but for our Navy LMS..
The LMS... Benign mission it is! Might as well use the Samudera class. Don't have to spend billions on benign mission. If this ship breaks down on its maiden voyage with the cooling water pumps going kaput, we can just get the parts from Serdang. What a letdown. Better the Laksmanas, even though they are old, they have the fear factor. Benign mission..what a term
i see theres nothing new with this lms from china, its design looks ordinary..and it is overly hyped..
Yup everyone could see that boustead with the cheap off the shelf chinese design is more expensive than the bigger better performance MMEA damen OPV 1800 design, and 4x more expensive than the NGPC with shamefully lower performance than the smaller ship.
It is not worthy of the Littoral Mission Ship name as it could not even perform on par with the old laksamana corvettes and missile FACs.
I don't mind getting ships from china. What i am angry is at that price other countries such as Nigeria is getting advanced type 056 corvette based 1800tonnes opv (the p18n) instead of the sparsely equipped 680tonnes slow boat.
That ship should be no more than usd10-12 million tops, not the criminally expensive usd60million per ship.