Malaysia will buy 3 (+5 optional) Turkish Ada-Class corvettes. Malaysian Defense Ministry is currently in negotations with Türkiye’s state-owned producer STM.
Defence Minister DS Khaled Nordin in a written reply to a question in Parliament on March 13 stated that the government had determined the procurement of the ships will be conducted through the government-to-government approach with the Turkish government.
This will be conducted via direct negotiations with state-owned company Savunma Teknolojileri Mühendislik (STM), he added.
He said the Ministry of Finance on January 18 ha approved of the procurement. “Following this the Defence Ministry has issued a letter of intent to the company – STM – on February 5 and the company had replied on February 8 for further negotiations.
The ministry via the Royal Malaysian Navy is currently undertaking the detail negotiations to determine the specifications and subsequently the cost before the procurement is concluded.”
Malaysian Defence has reported previously that the Ada class corvette was the favourite for the LMS Batch 2 though the industry wanted RMN to look to other designs.
As previously reported there are currently three variants of the Ada class – Turkish, Pakistan and Ukrainian. All three relatively the same size – 99 metres and a displacement of 2,400 tonnes. The main weapons are the 76mm guns, eight surface to surface missiles and two torpedo launchers. They can carry two S-70 helicopters.
It is in the anti-aircraft weaponary the ships differed, the Turkish ones are fitted with a single RAM launcher while the Pakistan ones – four of them – are equipped with MBDA Albatross missiles (a longer range version of the CAAM ER/Sea Ceptor) while the Ukrainian ones are equipped for MBDA MICA VL missiles.
I hazard to guess we may well end up with a variant of the Ukrainian one as the same missiles are also hardwired for the LCS. I stand to be corrected of course. Defence News has reported the Ukrainian two Ada class corvettes will cost around US$256 million (RM1.2 billion) though this may well exclude the cost of the missiles and other weapons.
With our luck we may end up without the SAM as RMN had envisaged the LMS Batch 2 without them, only fitted for but not equipped with.
Source: Malaysian Defence
