KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5 — The Ministry of Defence (Mindef) will realise the construction of the littoral combat ship (LCS) project for the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) to strengthen the defence of national waters.
Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan said Mindef’s mission is to ‘complete the ships’ by 2024.
“We will base our consideration purely on commercial consideration. We want to make sure the ships are completed. If it is not all six, four would be enough so long as they are completed during my tenure in Mindef.
“I will continue the efforts implemented by Mindef, the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) as well as various other agencies and the Finance Ministry, Economy Ministry as well as the Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT) in realising the completion of the LCS,” he said.
He was delivering the 2023 Defence Minister’s message at Wisma Pertahanan here today.
Mohamad said he had consulted the Finance Ministry, Economy Ministry and Mindef so as to be able to explain the actual situation on the LCS issue.
“We are not interested in suing anybody or putting someone behind bars, (but) what I’m only interested is to see the ships in our waters by July 2024,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mohamad said the defence development capability and capacity would continue with government allocations to Mindef amounting to RM17.4 billion for operating and development expenditures.
“A total of 281 procurement plans with a projected value of RM8 billion is for the MAF military asset maintenance and spare supplies.
“Among them are 155 millimetre self- propelled howitzer, restoration of KD Laksamana, KD Jerai and KD Lekir for RMN as well as maintenance of C130 aircraft and the spare supplies of RMN aircraft.
“It is also to continue with the agenda to acquire Maritime Patrol Aircraft and Medium Altitude Long Endurance Unmanned Aircraft System and Light Combat Aircraft apart from ensuring the priority of acquiring the littoral mission ship would receive due consideration of the Finance Ministry and Economy Ministry,” he said.
He said all projects planned must be expedited especially those involving one-off or special programmes which have to be paid in the current year.
