MMEA Plans to Operate a Fleet of Nine OPV

23 Oktober 2019

KM Arau and KM Pekan ex Japan Coast Guard (photo : MMEA)

The Malaysian Coast Guard, also known as the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) is planning to operate of at wleast nine Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) as evident in the naming convention of its OPVs.

The two earlier OPV, the KM Langkawi (ex KD Musytari) and KM Banggi (ex KD Marikh) obtained from the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) were given the name of maritime features in Malaysia (islands, straits etc.) as with other assets with the MMEA.

Nevertheless, the procurement of KM Pekan (ex JCG Erimo) and KM Arau (ex JCG Oki) obtained from Japanese Coast Guard (JCG) set a new precedence in naming convention of MMEA ships at least when it comes to big white hull ships like OPV and cutters.

The Pekan and Arau are royal towns of the Malay Sultanate states of Pahang Darul Makmur and Perlis Indera Kayangan.

The three new OPV currently being built at Pulau Indah near Port Klang will be named after the royal towns of Kota Bharu (Kelantan Darul Naim), Kuala Kangsar (Perak Darul Ridzwan) and Seri Menanti (Negri Sembilan Darul Khusus).

It has been reported that eventually the two Langkawi class OPV will be retired thus resulting a requirement of four more OPVs.

This could be a challenge due limited funds that could be made available to procure more ships in the future.

The MMEA is asking for two mobile seabases to enable the agency to maintain continuous presence at both sides of the South China Sea. Such requirement has not being materialised possibly due to limited funds allocated to the agency.

The coast guard agency was recently being transferred from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to the Home Ministry which is also responsible for other homeland security agencies including the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP).

Kota Bharu class OPV based on Damen 1800 OPV (image : MMEA)

The RMP has recently requested that two of its PZ class patrol boats, known as the Ramunia class patrol boats are to be returned back so that the Marine Police is able to deploy them to Eastern Sabah as motherships.

This has put further pressure to the coast guard due to asset deficit.

Perhaps the MMEA and the Government would like to consider a few options that recently transpired. The Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) has recently retires two of its Lake class Inshore Patrol Vessels, the HMNZS Pukaki and HMNZS Rotoiti which were in service for just 10 years.

The two ships are larger development of the two Perwira class patrol boats namely the KM Perwira (ex ACV Arnhem Bay) and KM Satria (ex ACV Dame Roma Mitchell).

Another option is to go for Indian designed OPV. During a visit by an Indian Navy research ship, the INS Sagardhwani, the Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia said,

“We wish to share our technical and engineering expertise in the field of security, defence and maritime industries, for the mutual benefit of other nations.

“And Malaysia is most welcome to participate in possible joint-venture programmes in ship-building, just like we share technical knowledge and training in a lot of other aspects,”

As suggested by Marhalim Abbas in his blog, it is better to take the opportunity to buy Vikram class OPV built by Lourssen and Toubro for the Indian Coast Guard (ICG), at a cost of RM120 million per vessel, the MMEA is able to fulfill its requirement of 9 OPV at cheaper cost, almost half the cost to built the three Kota Bharu class OPVs which are based on Damen 1800 OPV design.

(MFH)