Exclusive: Interview with Chief of Royal Malaysian Navy on "15 to 5" Transformation Programme

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Focus- Royal Malaysian Navy
 
 
 
Exclusive: Interview with Chief of Royal Malaysian Navy on "15 to 5" Transformation Programme
 
During DSA 2016 in Kuala Lumpur, Navy Recognition met with the Chief of Royal Malaysian Navy, Admiral Kamarulzaman to learn about the new "15 to 5" transformation programme.
     
Interview with Admiral Kamarulzaman on the "15 to 5" transformation programme
     
Because of fiscal challenges and the geopolitics situation in the South East Asia region, Admiral Kamarulzaman is rolling out a new transformation and modernization plan called "15 to 5". There are currently 15 classes of ships in the RMN, coming from 7 nations with an average age of 30 years. This represents a large costs in terms of maintenance and operations. As a solution the "15 to 5" plan calls for:
1 - Phasing out of the older vessels in the fleet. This would lead to optimized resources.
2 - Improving procurement processes (reduced and optimized procurement requirements, reduced ill practices) would lead to additional savings for the RMN.
3 - Use these savings to fund the "15 to 5" plan, while focusing on local shipyards and defence industry.

The five classes that would form the Royal Malaysian Navy would be:
» New Generation Patrol Vessel (Kedah-class)
» Littoral Combat Ship (Gowind-class)
» Littoral Mission Ship (able to do 80% of the LCS class missions at 20% of the cost)
» Multirole Supply Ship
» Submarines (Scorpene-class)

The RMN fleet would remain at 55 vessels meaning some additional procurement even among existing classes (such as the Scorpene-class submarines, two of which are already deployed by Malaysia).