THE Royal Malaysian Navy’s first littoral combat ship (LCS) is expected to be completed in November next year, Deputy Defence Minister Adly Zahari told the Dewan Rakyat today.

He said this was based on the latest supplemental contract signed by Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS) with the government in relation to the controversial project. 

“In the latest developments, the sixth supplemental agreement was signed on May 26, 2023, which is the date to restart the LCS project. 

“Based on the plans contained in this additional agreement, the construction of the first LCS vessel is expected to be completed in November 2024, whereby it will then undergo harbour acceptance tests, followed by sea acceptance tests.

“Therefore, based on this plan, the first LCS vessel is expected to be commissioned for use by the navy at the end of year 2026,” the Alor Gajah MP said.

He was responding to a question from Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz (Tanah Merah-PN), who asked to state the timeline of the first LCS project and if it can be completed as planned. 

Early last month, Defence Minister Mohamad Hasan said the Finance Ministry had established a special purpose vehicle to take over the company responsible for the LCS project.

He also said the project would still be monitored by the Project Monitoring Committee jointly chaired by the Treasury secretary-general and the Defence Ministry secretary-general.

The LCS project, said to be the largest defence procurement in Malaysia’s history with an initial total cost of RM9 billion, was revised to the tune of RM11.2 billion after BNS signed a sixth supplemental contract for the project with the government on May 26.  

However, despite the increase in total project cost, the Royal Malaysian Navy will now only be getting five LCS vessels instead of six. 

BNS said the first vessel will be delivered, fully tested, in August 2026, while the fifth ship is expected to be delivered in April 2029.

On the revision of the total cost, Ikmal asserted that these would be the costliest LCS vessels built and the longest duration taken to deliver a single ship. 

The Tanah Merah MP also asked the deputy minister to explain the increase in cost despite BNS now having to deliver one less vessel.

Adly said there were two main reasons for the increase in costs. 

“We need 83 additional months of construction period because all work had stopped for quite a long time. When we agreed to continue with this LCS project, more time is definitely needed.

“If we look at the original agreement, we should be able to complete the construction of the first LCS vessel in 2019. 

“So the increase of 83 months will definitely incur some additional costs but the biggest cost increase is based on the specification change (variation order) based on the needs of the navy. 

“There were several changes made to the specifications, which was agreed by the government, because it was deemed mandatory and important,” he said. – June 8, 2023.