Malaysian Defence

Walk Like The Pakistanis

SHAH ALAM: The Istanbul naval shipyard launched the third Pakistani Ada-class corvette – PNS Khaibar – on November 25, some four years after the contract was signed. Khaibar is the third corvette of the class but the second one to be built in Turkiye. Under the contract, two corvettes will […]

Defence Contract

Walk Like An Egyptian Part 5

SHAH ALAM: Walk Like An Egyptian Part 5. The Egyptian Navy took delivery on October 14, the first of four MEKO A-200 frigate from German shipbuilder, Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS). Four ships were ordered in 2018, with the first three units produced in Germany and the fourth vessel built by […]

commentary

Running On Empty

SHAH ALAM: Senior Defence Minister DS Hishammuddin Hussein on September 1 announced that the French government had given its commitment for the completion of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) project. He made the announcement after meeting a representative of the French government at his office at Jalan Padang Tembak. He […]

defence Industry

Walk Like An Emirati

SHAH ALAM: Walk like an Emirati. Naval Group of France launched on May 13 the second Gowind corvette for the United Arab Emirates. The ship is the second of two corvettes ordered by UAE in 2019. The first ship was launched in December, 2021. The launch of the second corvette […]

Defence Contract

How Much Is That LCS in The Window?

SHAH ALAM: How much is that LCS in the window? The honest answer is no one knows, really. They didn’t know it when the Boustead Naval Shipyard (BNS) was awarded the Letter of Award (LOA) back in 2011. They still didn’t know when the RM9 billion contract was signed back […]

Defence Contract

Egypt Buys Additional Rafales

SHAH ALAM: Egypt buys additional Rafales. Dassault Aviation today announced that the Egypt has decided to purchase 30 additional Rafales for its air force. With the new addition the Egyptian Air Force will operate 54 Rafales in the near future, making it the biggest export user of the multi-role aircraft. […]

Defence Contract

Walk Like An Egyptian, Part 3

SHAH ALAM: Walk like an Egyptian, Part 3. Egypt has launched its fourth, El Fateh (Gowind) class corvette, the Luxor, the third vessel to be built locally at the Alexandria shipyard on May 14, 2020. Two other corvettes build at the shipyard are the Port Said and Al Moez. The […]

Malaysia -RMN

Walk Like An Egyptian, Part 2

SHAH ALAM: Walk Like An Egyptian, Part 2. In an earlier post, I reported that Egypt may well beat Malaysia in getting their first Gowind corvette. And indeed it had happened as the Egypt Navy took delivery of its first Gowind corvette last year. Now it appears that Egypt will […]

Defence Contract

LCS on Steroids

SHAH ALAM: It appears that DCNS has taken the Gowind design further and made a proper frigate. The result is the Belharra – an evolution of the Gowind and the FREMM frigates – five of which will be build starting in 2023. The Belharra pushed the LCS design further turning […]

Malaysia -RMN

Walk Like An Egyptian

SHAH ALAM: Walk Like An Egyptian was a song made famous by an American band the Bangles. However, in building the Gowind corvette, the French firm DCNS and maybe the Egyptians, are beating our boys in Lumut. Boustead Naval Shipyard started building RMN’s LCS, four months earlier than the first […]

Malaysia -RMN

You Win Some, You Lose Some…

SHAH ALAM: You Win Some, You Lose Some. In the previous post, we discussed about the possibility of the RMN getting more hulls, specifically China-made warships. Several readers suggested that there wasn’t not enough funds for RMN to get its cake and eat it too. While its true that maintaining […]