Malaysia Takes Delivery Of Its First Submarine

Thursday, Jan 29, 2009

Malaysiahas taken delivery of its first submarine -- a Scorpene built by Frenchmilitary shipyard DCNS in partnership with Spanish shipyard Navantia.

A Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) statement today said NazriSiron, secretary of the Defence Ministry's Procurement Division, headed a teamwhich took delivery of the submarine, named KD Tunku Abdul Rahman after Malaysia'sfirst prime minister, at the French naval base in Toulon, France, last Saturday.

The team also comprised First Admiral Khairudin Khalid,director-general of the Engineering Division, and members of the RMN submarineproject team.

At the ceremony, DCNS was represented by its Scorpeneproject director Didier Husson and Navantia by its managing director ManuelFilgureira.

Chief of Navy Datuk Seri Abdul Aziz Jaafar witnessed thehand-over.

Abdul Aziz congratulated the crew of the submarine on theirhaving surpassed all obstacles and challenges in qualifying to become the crewof the nation's first submarine.

The Scorpene, a conventional submarine built in Cherbourg, France, can monitor thecountry's waters to a depth of between 100 and 200 metres, the statement said.

It also said that the submarine was equipped with sixtorpedo tubes, which can fire simultaneously, anti-ship surface missiles andanti-submarine torpedoes.

The vessel has the capacity to carry 10 torpedoes and 30mines, it added.

Malaysiahas ordered another similar submarine, named KD Tun Razak after the country'ssecond prime minister.