Malaysia’s Boustead Lines up Second Batch of Kedah-Class Vessels

19 April 2018

Boustead NGPV Batch II concept (photo : Navy Recognition)

Malaysia’s Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation (BHIC) is preparing a proposal to supply the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) with a second batch of MEKO 100 Kedah-class corvettes, the company has confirmed to Jane’s .

Speaking at the Defence Services Asia (DSA) 2018 exhibition in Kuala Lumpur on 19 April, Zulkefli bin Mohd Ghazali, BHIC’s head of project planning and co-ordination, said that the company has offered a batch-two design based on the original hull, the licence for which BHIC has acquired.

BHIC has also recently formed a partnership with the RMN to review the design and make improvements based on RMN requirements, he said.

The first batch of six Kedah-class corvettes, referred to in Malaysia as New Generation Patrol Vessels (NGPVs), were built through a partnership between BHIC and Blohm+Voss. The first two vessels were built in Germany between 2001 and 2003 and entered service in 2006. BHIC built the remaining four vessels in Malaysia, the last of which was delivered to the RMN in 2010.

The RMN has a stated requirement for an additional 12 Kedah-class corvettes, which are expected to be built through two additional batches. The acquisition forms part of the RMN’s ’15 to 5’ modernisation programme, through which the RMN plans to consolidate its fleet of 15 ship classes into five to improve cost efficiencies.

Ghazali said that in line with this programme, the batch-two proposal is “budget driven with a cost ceiling we cannot exceed”. Jane’s understands that the targeted unit price of the second-batch ships is less than MYR500 million (USD129 million).

Although most of the proposed dimensions and specifications of the batch-two class are the same as the batch-one vessels, Ghazali added that cost efficiencies will be achieved by “scaling down” some of the configurations and capabilities, including weapons systems.

(Jane's)