Malaysia Takes Delivery Of Its First Submarine

Malaysia has taken formal delivery of its first submarine KD Tunku Abdul Rahman at the French naval base in Toulon, on Saturday. This major milestone for the RMN follows the completion, in late December 2008, of KD Tunku Abdul Rahman's final sea trials demonstrating remarkable operational and combat system capabilities. These trials included successful firings of Black Shark heavyweight torpedoes and missiles.KD Tunku Abdul Rahman is scheduled to arrive at the Sepanggar naval base in July this year. The second of the series, KD Tun Razak, is scheduled for delivery in late 2009.

Manned by Malaysian crews of just 31, the boats offer an endurance of 45 days for a displacement of 1,550 tonnes and a length overall of 67.5 metres. The submarine can dive to a depth of between 100m and 200m and is armed with six torpedo tubes which can fire simultaneously, anti-ship surface missiles and anti-submarine torpedoes, with a capacity of 10 torpedoes and 30 mines.

The submarine service marks the gradual progress of the Royal Malaysian Navy towards a world-class navy, also in line with the wish to transition into the 4-dimensional warfare (surface, underwater, space and electronic) capability. Thus KD Tunku Abdul Rahman has now gone into history as the first submarine to be commissioned into the Royal Malaysian Navy and will sail home manned fully by our own submariners. Congratulations to the crew of the submarine on their having surpassed all obstacles and challenges in qualifying to become the crew of the nation's first submarine.