The tale of 6 new SGPVs for the Navy

 

FROM ZAID IBRAHIM:

 

Four months ago, I wrote about Defence Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi and Co. wanting to purchase six more Second Generation Patrol Vessels or SGPVs for the Navy. The  story was ignored by the public; and so I have to write this again.

Some of you will recall that when the Government decided(?) to privatise the Lumut Naval Dockyard in the early 1990s and gave it to the "everywhere" man with the white hair  Tan Sri Amin Shah Omar with a proven ZERO KNOWLEDGE; EXPERIENCE and SKILLS  in Naval/Marine , engineering  nor management. 

But that does not matter to your Government because  he is "special"...... so to assist this " Indian sub-continent looking Bumiputra ( btw a  similiar in looks like  the current "Bumiputra"  Menteri Besar of Perak or the  Minister in charge of  EPU and the former 2nd Minister of Finance or the latest Secretary of State etc... " ) .... the privatisation  exercise also entailed the Government buying six patrol vessels from him for the Navy.

That exercise cost taxpayers ie you and me and all of us poor citizens  RM9 billion  ie a whopping RM 1,500 MILLION per boat !!!....... would'nt you love to see what this boat looks like???.......

 

RM6 billion for the patrol vessels and

RM3 billion for interest charges for late payments and exchange rate losses !! 

Amin Shah ordered the vessels from the German company Blohm + Voss. Apart from procuring the six patrol vessels, Lumut Naval Dockyard (now Boustead Naval Shipyard) also paid an extra RM300 million for their design so that we could build additional units ourselves if we needed them in future. “Malaysia Boleh!” was, after all, the rallying cry then, and our defence officials have never failed to brandish the catchphrase, “transfer of technology”.

Fast-forward 15 years later and our current Defence Minister has decided to buy another SIX  patrol vessels. It will cost more this time, naturally, since these are second generation SGPVs with a new design to be built by another company, DCNS.

Now, you will of course ask; why are we not using the design that we ALREADY PAID RM300 MILLION?...And why Zahid and Boustead Naval Shipyard have decided to change our supplier to DCNS is mind boggling!

All I can confirm is that DCNS is a famous company because DCNS supplied us Scorpene submarines (a deal in which someone equally famous got RM500 million in duit kopi - again your money is used ). DCNS is also involved in a corruption scandal in Taiwan, where they had been sued by the Taiwan government for recovery of more than USD1 billion for a kickback scandal.

So how much will this new procurement cost Malaysian taxpayers?

The new vessels’ combat and management system will be decided by some foreign consultants and not by the Royal Malaysian Navy, so your guess is as good as mine. But it’s not just the money I am worried about. The consultants are Singapore based companies. Are they not foreigners? What if they recommend a system that compromises our national security? What assurrnce do we have that these consultants are not our enemies?

Every time we question the Government’s secrecy in the procurement of defence equipment, we are told that it’s in our national interests to be kept in the dark............. so easy to pleased us!??

Now I know why.

I am certain that input from our Royal Navy into this very important procurement has been minimal at best. So we can expect an announcement later that will sound something like this:-

WATCH OUT FOR THIS FAMILIAR FUTURE NEWS !! :-

.... "the base price for the vessels is now RM10 billion while the maintenance, training and parts contracts will cost RM1 billion a year for 10 years..."

That means Tabung Angkatan Tentera, which has the controlling stake in Boustead Holdings, and ordinary Malaysians (who will be getting RM500 soon) must be prepared to shoulder the burden of a RM20 billion defence contract for vessels that neither you nor I can even be sure we need...... except like our Army Tanks; will be needed for the parade on Merdeka Day!!.

  

I know many of you are excited about the cow scandal now engulfing Women, Family and Community Development Minister Dato’ Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil. But that’s peanuts compared to what’s cooking at the Defence Ministry. 

It’s comical; unfair and indeed  hypocrate for some UMNO leaders to ask Shahrizat to resign when they are all in the same very dirty black pot.

For the moment, I hope our Defence Minister or Prime Minister can answer three simple questions:

 Firstly, Do we realy need six more additional petrol vessels?? 

Secondly; why does each petrol vessel costs so, so, much? ..... what are we buying  or getting for this big money... are there no other options???

Thirdly, are we buying the six patrol vessels from DCNS and for how much?

Fourthly, why were Singapore based foreign consultants engaged, to the exclusion of the Navy, to recommend combat systems and other sensitive components of the vessels?

And fifthly, why are we not having a competitive bid for this project? 

the Asian market defence budget

TAIPEI — As U.S. and European defense budgets experience nervous breakdowns, the Asian market for new naval and coast guard ships to protect fisheries, commerce and littoral claims sees no slowdown.
 No more evidence is needed than the International Maritime Defence Exhibition (2013 IMDEX Asia) in May in Singapore. According to Jimmy Lau, managing director of Experia Events, this year’s expedition space for IMDEX is already 80 percent booked.

 “We will be welcoming new exhibitors, including Fincantieri, Luerssen, Scania, Schiebel and Westport Shipyard, alongside returning top companies, such as DCNS, Lockheed Martin and ST Engineering,” he said. This year’s IMDEX also will see an increased presence of shipbuilders providing offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) and smaller patrol vessels, “which are looking to tap growing demand for such vessels as navies in the region look to modernizing their fleet,” Lau said.

 OPVs are in big demand in the Asia-Pacific region. According to a 20-year forecast by the U.S.-based naval analysis firm AMI International, “Global Naval Investment: The ‘Hi-Lo’ Mix,” the Asia-Pacific OPV market is expected to generate 55 vessels through 2030, making it the second-most potent OPV market after NATO, at 72.

 Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia face challenges patrolling and safeguarding the sea lanes of communication through the Singapore and Malacca straits, which are vulnerable chokepoints. There also have been demands for patrol vessels among countries disputing rich fishing grounds and potentially lucrative petroleum reserves in the South China Sea. 

The Philippines is frustrated over Chinese maritime incursions and counterclaims by Beijing over the Scarborough Shoal, which is within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. The Philippine Navy has begun the Capability Upgrade Program of its Strategic Sail Plan 2020. Since 2009, the Philippine Navy also has acquired multipurpose attack craft and a landing craft utility vessel.  In 2011 and 2012, the U.S. provided two ex-U.S. Coast Guard vessels, both Hamilton-class high-endurance cutters, to the Philippine Navy. A third Hamilton-class vessel is under discussion.  In 2012, Japan announced plans to provide the Philippines with 10 100-meter patrol vessels for its Coast Guard.

 Japan has been making moves to defend its southern island chain, including the announcement that the Ministry of Defense plans as early as 2015 to purchase and deploy an as-yet-unstated number of Global Hawk UAVs and monitor the nation’s far-flung Senkaku islets.  The pending deployment of the UAVs, leaked to local media in December, follows an increasingly rancorous dispute over the islands, situated in the East China Sea between Okinawa and Taiwan, which have seen repeated incursions of Chinese ships into areas around the islands.  The move to deploy U.S.-made UAVs comes on top of robust plans to increase the MoD’s abilities to deter aggression and, most recently, projected not-too-distant capacity to even retake the Senkakus if invaded.

 From this April, the MoD will fund programs that will significantly boost Japan’s capabilities to defend its southern island. These include improved maritime surveillance and forward deploying a new coastal surveillance radar and coast observation unit on Yonaguni island, adjacent to Taiwan.

“I think we’re seeing the coalescence of nearly two decades of steadily increasing mistrust of China by the Japanese people. That’s been borne out by the reaction to the crises around the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands,” said James Manicom, Research Fellow at Centre for International Governance Innovation, a Canadian think tank.  The Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) marines also have been training with U.S. counterparts to enhance amphibious warfare capability.

“The GSDF has been training with the marines for eight years now. ... I believe that Japan now has 80 percent of the capabilities of what it takes to field an amphibious landing force,” said Paul Giarra, president, Global Strategies & Transformation, a Washington-based defense consultancy.  And the new Japanese government under the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, which came to power Dec. 26, is expected to further boost defense spending.  AMI said procurements of new naval vessels and upgrades of older ones continue to grow for both large and small vessels. The Asia-Pacific is still buying and building more “littoral optimal” ships and submarine hulls in the 3,000-ton-and-below range for ships, and the 1,500- to 2,000-ton range for submarines, said Bob Nugent, vice president of AMI’s advisory services. “To boil it down — I don’t see it so much as ‘either/or’ [littoral or blue water] when it comes to new-build ship investment decisions for an increasing number of Asia-Pacific navies,” he said.

 For example, among 2,000- to 4,000-ton multipurpose combatants, including SIGMAs for Indonesia, Singapore’s Formidable-class frigates and Malaysia’s second-generation patrol vessels, are “emerging as the optimal flex design to cover the broadest mission set … capable of covering littoral ops and distant deployments,” Nugent said.  Lau said the Asia-Pacific region recently surpassed Europe as the world’s second-largest naval market after the U.S., with projected spending of more than $201 billion in the next two decades on about 1,055 ships. “Southeast Asia in particular is set to spend more than $25 billion on new naval ships through 2031, with patrol vessels, frigates and amphibious ships forming the core of future new naval projects in the region,” Lau said.

 Lau said that in line with industry trends, one of the new highlights of IMDEX Asia will be demonstrations of unmanned aerial systems (UASs), which have been gaining ground rapidly in the industry. Singapore’s ST Engineering has been producing a variety of UASs, including the Fantail and Skyblade family, and has been developing surface unmanned vessels. These will primarily be used for coastal waterway, harbor and hazardous missions.

 Submarine Spending

 Navies in the Asia-Pacific region will “acquire more submarines and spend more on them over the next two decades than any other region in the world except the United States,” Nugent said. 

“The Asia-Pacific region remains the largest regional submarine market in the world by hull numbers, and second-largest [after the U.S.] in planned investment,” he said. “With 282 new submarines to be built worldwide through 2031, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to acquire over 40 percent of that total, and expend over 27 percent of all new submarine funding worldwide over the same period.” Six countries in the Asia-Pacific make up almost 90 percent of future new-construction submarine acquisitions projected over the next two decades. According to AMI, the Asia-Pacific countries spending the most on submarines, in order, are India, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Australia and China.  Among some Asian countries, including Singapore and Vietnam, submarines are primarily used to protect exclusive economic zones and conduct surveillance in the littorals. China is expected to first use its subs to patrol disputed islands in the South China Sea before conducting longer-range blue-water missions. 

 On China, AMI bases its estimated acquisition cost on 16 new-build submarines forecast to join the fleet in the next five years.

 The AMI forecast report predicts that the Asian and Australian market will produce 116 submarines between now and 2032. The report also concludes that the regional market for both naval and coast guard acquisitions will result in 128 amphibious vessels, 12 corvettes, two cruisers, 235 fast attack craft, 82 OPVs and 255 patrol craft.

from AMI Jan 2013

RMN Kota Kinabalu Base To Become World's First Training Centre For Scorpene

BERNAMA October 15, 2012 17:46 PM

By Mohd Razman Abdullah

KOTA KINABALU, Oct 15 (Bernama) -- The Kota Kinabalu Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) base here is set to become the world's first training centre for Scorpene submarines.

RMN Chief Admiral Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Jaafar said a second simulator training facility, costing about Euro 27 million (RM135 million), would be built for the purpose.

He said work to build the training facility would begin next month, and was scheduled for completion in either January or February, next year.

"When the facility is completed, it will be the world's first training centre for Scorpene submarines," he told Bernama here today.

Abdul Aziz said, upon completion of the facility, RMN would also open its Kota Kinabalu base to accept foreign trainees.

So far, India and Chile had offered to send their trainees for training with RMN, he added.

The Kota Kinabalu RMN base here is where the two French-made Scorpene submarines, purchased by the Malaysian Government for RM7.3 billion, are based.

The submarines are named 'KD Tunku Abdul Rahman' and 'KD Tun Razak'.

Abdul Aziz said the first simulator for Scorpene training at the base was limited for internal use by RMN.

He said the building of the simulator facility at the base could reduce the government's expenditure in sending RMN personnel abroad for training.

-- BERNAMA