1. Development
     SGPV program    Contract awarded    Defence Services Asia 2014    IHS Jane's    LIMA 2015  

2. Characteristics
     General    Armament    Sensors  

3. Ships of the class

4. See also

5. References

6. External links

The Maharaja Lela-class frigates (before known as Second Generation Patrol Vessel (SGPV) or Littoral combat ships (LCS)) is a class of six stealth frigates being built for the Royal Malaysian Navy.^[8] The ships are based on an enlarged version of the Gowind-class corvette, designed by DCNS of France. The contract has been finalised and it has been decided that all six ships will be built by local shipbuilder Boustead Holdings Berhad for the Royal Malaysian Navy at a ceiling price of RM9 billion (US$2.8 billion), starting from 2015.^[9] The ships will be 111 meters long with a displacement of 3,100 tonnes.^[10][11]

Development

SGPV program

In early 2011, Malaysia announced its SGPV program with a budget of RM6 billion (US$1.9 billion) and six foreign shipbuilders announced interest in the project, most notably ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems with the MEKO 200 and Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding with the Sigma class 10514 as well as DCNS's Gowind-class corvette which was ultimately selected.^[12]

Contract awarded

In late 2011, it was announced that the Gowind class had been chosen and that the SGPV program had been awarded to Boustead Naval Shipyard/DCNS, with the ceiling price increasing to RM9 billion (US$2.8 billion) from RM6 billion (US$1.9 billion). The RM9 billion (US$2.8 billion) contract included intellectual property rights and technology transfer.^[13] The ships' sizes had also changed in accordance with the increase in ceiling price, increasing from 2,700 tonnes to 3,100 tonnes. All six ships will be built by Boustead Naval Shipyard in Lumut, Malaysia and electronic components will be assembled in Cyberjaya, a township in Malaysia just south of Kuala Lumpur.

Defence Services Asia 2014

At DSA 2014, the program manager Mr Anuar replied to an interview saying that "The program is progressing rather well, with some parts already in critical design review" and "We expect the first ship to be finished by 2017 or early 2018". He also implied that Boustead Naval Shipyard was in charge of designing the Malaysian specification of the Gowind-class ship and not DCNS.^[14] He also commented that the ships are "full fledged frigates and in my opinion, will be a huge deterrent for the Royal Malaysian Navy."

IHS Jane's

On 5 October 2014, an article on IHS Jane's Defence Weekly website stated that the Royal Malaysian Navy chief Admiral Aziz told IHS Jane's that construction of the first of the six-ship LCS class had started at the Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation (BHIC) shipyard facilities in Lumut, and reiterating a 2017–18 delivery date for the first ship and the remaining five ships delivered at six-month intervals thereafter. It also stated that RMN's current planning schedule called for sea trials of the first ship to be carried out in 2018 and operational entry in 2019.^[15]

LIMA 2015

At the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition 2015, Anuar Murad, Director of the Defence & Security Division at BHIC, confirmed that the Naval Strike Missile had been chosen for the SGPV's anti-ship missile requirement, winning over the Exocet MM40 Blk3. He also commented that "We are now approaching the end of basic design phase two. We have integrated the systems and equipment into the main whole warship design. We have two more combat system equipments that we have not been able to finalize. For the platform systems equipment, we do have all the major ones already in contract and gone through the design review." Some additional details of the ship such as dimensions at waterline and sea state survivability were made known at the exhibition.^[16]

Characteristics

General

• Displacement – 3,100 tons
• Length – 111 m (overall) / 105 m (waterline)
• Breadth – 16 m (main deck) / 14.2 m (waterline)
• Draught – 3.85 m
• Propulsion – CODAD
• Maximum speed – 28 knots
• Range – 5,000 nm at 15 knots
• Crew – 138
• Survivability – Sea State 9
• Endurance – 21 days
• Aircraft carried – 1 × Super Lynx 300 / Fennec AS555 / EC725

Armament

It has been decided that the ships will be armed with, but now FFBNW

• 1 × Bofors 57 mm gun
• 2 × MSI DS30M 30 mm cannon
• 8 × Naval Strike Missile SSM^[17]
• 2 × J+S Fixed triple torpedo launcher^[18]

The 57 mm gun will be mounted in a stealth cupola similar to the ones mounted on the Swedish {{sclass-|Visby|corvette|1}}. Boustead Naval Shipyard has also announced that there has been extra space allocated on the deck of the ship for more VLS cells. The contracts for many of the armaments have been signed, leaving only the anti air missiles undecided.

Sensors

These sensors have been chosen for the ships.

It is believed that the Navy had requested for Thales Herakles radar used on the FREMM frigates but Boustead Naval Shipyard had instead chosen the SMART-S.^[19]

Ships of the class

See also

• Littoral Mission Ship (LMS)
• Littoral combat ship
• {{sclass-|Independence|littoral mission vessel|1}}
• {{sclass2-|Khareef|corvette|1}}
• {{sclass-|Incheon|frigate|1}}
• Type 056 corvette

References

External links

• Photos of an outdated model of the SGPV, seen without the stealth main gun
• Gowind class Frigate – Royal Malaysian Navy on navyrecognition.com

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