Confirmed! Read On Lah!

As previously stated in my post on the Royal Malaysian Navy obtaining a second auxiliary ship for escort duties in the Gulf of Aden, today it has been confirmed by the newspaper article above and below. An interesting fact is that will allow the Navy circular escort from and to the area from home.

The Star Online > Nation

Friday April 22, 2011

Sub to arrive in August

KUALA LUMPUR: The Agosta submarine, which had been used to train Royal Malaysian Navy personnel in France, will arrive here in August.

Navy Chief Adm Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Jaafar said the submarine, which has been decommissioned, would become a museum piece.

“We are expecting its arrival in August. There will be a signing ceremony between the Defence Ministry secretary-general and the French side before it is handed over to us,” he told a press conference here yesterday.

On the country's first two submarines KD Tunku Abdul Rahman and KD Tun Razak Adm Abdul Aziz said they were in the open sea and operating smoothly, contrary to reports.

He also denied claims that kickbacks were involved over the two Scorpene submarines, adding that neither the European Union nor the RMN condoned such acts.

It was announced last month that the submarines would cost RM50mil a year to maintain.

On the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden, Adm Abdul Aziz said there could be two RMN auxiliary escort ships guarding Malaysian trading vessels by the end of this year.

The second ship, he said, would supplement Bunga Mas 5, which successfully foiled a hijacking attempt against Malaysian MT Bunga Laurel last January.

Commandos had captured seven Somali pirates who have since been charged here.

Adm Abdul Aziz said assigning Bunga Mas 6 as the second auxiliary ship resulted from continued strategic cooperation between the RMN and the Malaysian International Shipping Corporation (MISC).

He also said that NGV Tech Sdn Bhd would build two training ships for the RMN at its shipyard in Sijangkang, Selangor with a two-year completion target.

In addition, finally the fate of Agosta has been sealed where as speculated before she will be brought back to Malaysia to become a museum piece. It will be quite a unique showpiece since she has not been officially commissioned to the Navy's fleet and it will be a first time a naval ship as such will be featured in what is supposed to be a nation's maritime museum. Maybe the justification would be that she was the only vessel ever used in the training of the full crew of Malaysian submariners.

Finally the two new training ships will start building soon as informed by the CNO and article below.