Navy receives second littoral mission ship, dubbed 'Sundang'

 

The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) received its second Littoral Mission Ship (LMS), called Sundang, at the Wucang Port in Shanghai, China today after more than two years of construction.

RMN in a statement today said Sundang had successfully passed a series of acceptance tests at the port and sea before being handed over to the Malaysian government and was scheduled to sail back to the country in the third week of this month.

According to the statement, construction on Sundang started on Oct 23, 2018, at Wuchuan Shuangliu Manufacture Base in Wuhan, China before it was scheduled to be handed over to the Malaysian government on Apr 12 last year.

However, the handing over could only be carried out today following the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic which saw the construction of Sundang halted on Jan 23 last year.

"The project was reactivated on May 18, 2020, and the prospective Sundang crew was sent back to Qidong, Shanghai in October last year to resume a series of familarisation training on the ship," according to the statement.

The ship's commissioning ceremony will be held at the Kota Kinabalu RMN base on a date set by Navy chief Mohd Reza Mohd Sany, read the statement.

LMS is one of five ship classes in RMN’s "15 to 5 Armada Transformation Programme" and the procurement contract of four LMS's was signed between the Defence Ministry and Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd on Mar 23, 2017 in collaboration with China Shipbuilding & Offshore International Co Ltd.

It is the first defence capital asset acquisition project from China and the third and fourth ships are scheduled to be delivered in September and November respectively.

- Bernama