KOTA KINABALU, Jan 12 — Malaysia’s second submarine, KD Tun Abdul Razak, is expected to arrive at the Royal Malaysia Navy (RMN) base in Sepanggar Bay here in early June.
RMN Submarine Commander First Admiral Mohammad Rosland Omar said the Scorpene submarine was currently undergoing second phase trials carried out by its Spanish manufacturer Navatia in waters off Cartagena in Spain.
“The journey home is expected to take two months. Come June, we will have two submarines here,” he told reporters after a RMV region two naval base’s Quality Day at Sepanggar Bay here today.
Malaysia’s first submarine, KD Tunku Abdul Rahman (KD TAR) arrived at the Lumut naval base from Toulon, France in early Sept 5 last year before it was stationed at the Sepanggar naval base on Sept 17.
Mohd Rosland said more RMN personnel would be trained to man both submarines to meet RMN future needs.
RMN Region II commander First Admiral Anuwi Hassan said the operations and programmes of both submarines for the year and next year had been laid out. On challenges facing RMN, he said among them were operating aging vessels but RMN was able to put 70 per cent of them in service.
“Anyway, they are not too old to operate. They have not exceeded their life span, but the cost of maintaining them is staggering. But we are able to repair the breakdowns and put them in service.
“We hope to acquire new assets to back up the present fleet under the 10th Malaysia Plan,” he added. — Bernama
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