Contenders for Malaysia’s LMS Batch 2 tender emerge at LIMA 2023
Two Chinese-built Keris-class Littoral Mission Ships of the Royal Malaysian Navy attended LIMA 2023. However, the navy needs more capable vessels for the second batch. (Photo: Gordon Arthur)
Apart from making progress with its troubled LCS programme, the priority for Malaysia’s navy right now is the next three Littoral Mission Ships.
Malaysia signed contracts for two ATR 72 MPA aircraft and three Anka-S MALE UAVs at LIMA 2023 in Langkawi. However, the naval competition attracting the greatest attention at the exhibition was a second batch of Littoral Mission Ships (LMS).
Under the original contract, the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) received four LMS from Wuhan Shipyard in China in 2020-22. Indeed, two of these 700t Keris-class vessels were present at LIMA, but sources told Shephard the 68.8m-long boats are not performing well.
Their relatively small size results in less-than-ideal seakeeping in bad weather, plus they are not well armed as they
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