The second submarine of the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN), the KD Tun
Abdul Razak, is expected to arrive at the RMN base in Sepanggar Bay
near this capital of the eastern state of Sabah in early June,
according to RMN Submarine Commander First Admiral Mohammad Rosland
Omar.
He said here Tuesday that the Scorpene submarine, named after the
country’s second prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, was currently
undergoing the second phase of trials being carried out by its Spanish
manufacturer, Navatia, in waters off Cartanega in Spain.
Scorpene class submarine
“The voyage home is expected to take two months. Come June, we will
have two submarines here,” he told reporters after the RMN Region II
Quality Day at Sepanggar Bay.
Malaysia’s first submarine, the KD Tunku Abdul Rahman, arrived at
the Lumut naval base in Peninsular Malaysia from Toulon, France in
early Sept 5 last year before it was deployed to the Sepanggar naval
base on Sept 17.
Mohd Rosland said more RMN personnel would be trained to man both submarines to meet the navy’s future needs.
Fast deep sea hunter and killer SSK KD Rahman & SSK KD Razak
RMN Region II commander First Admiral Anuwi Hassan said the
operations and programmes of both submarines for this 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 them when they break down and put them back into
service. We hope to acquire new assets to back up the present fleet
under the 10th Malaysia Plan (2011-2015),” he added. (Original News)
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