RMN's Second Scorpène-class Submarine Returns to Service after Refit

17 April 2020

RMN submarine KD Tun Razak at the LIMA defence exhibition in Malaysia in 2017. The boat has returned to service following an 18 month-long in-country refit programme (photo : Jane's)

The Royal Malaysian Navy's (RMN's) second of two Perdana Menteri (Scorpène)-class attack submarines has returned to service following the completion of an18 month-long in-country refit programme.

In a video released on 16 April the RMN showed KD Tun Razak conducting operations at an undisclosed location, with its crew shown wearing face masks, presumably as a precautionary measure against the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus. A caption in the video stated that the RMN was "patrolling Malaysian waters".

The RMN did not provide further details in the video, but a military source told Jane's that the submarine, which was commissioned in October 2009, had been conducting sea trials since late 2019 following the completion of the refit, which was carried out by the Boustead DCNS Naval Corporation (BDNC): a joint venture between Malaysian naval engineering group Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation and French shipbuilder, DCNS (now called Naval Group).

The service published a similar video in May 2018 shortly after first-of-class KD Tunku Abdul Rahman had returned to service following a similar refit. This submarine, which was commissioned in January 2009, had begun its refit with BDNC, which also provides integrated service and support for both submarines, in November 2015.

Just like with Tun Razak , refit work on the first-of-class was done in a facility at the Sepanggar naval base at Kota Kinabalu, which is located in the state of Sabah in the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo and is where both submarines are based.

(Jane's)