Malaysia receives first of four Littoral Missions Ship from Chinese shipbuilder

The first LMS of the RMN, the future KD Keris (111). Photo c/o New Straits Times.

The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) has formally received the first of the four Keris-class Littoral Missions Ship (LMS) that it has ordered from a Chinese shipbuilder.

The information was provided by an official from the Malaysian Ministry of Defence, confirming that the Chinese shipbuilder Wuchang Shipbuilding during ceremonies in Shanghai, China in late December 2019.

The ship, to be named the KD Keris (111), was received by Malaysia's Procurement Division - Ministry of Defence Secretary Datuk Ahmad Husaini Abdul Rahman, together with the RMN Eastern Fleet commander Vice-Admiral Datuk Pahlawan Syed Zahrul Putra Syed Abdullah and Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNSSB) chief executive officer Ee Teck Chee.

The ship was among those ordered under a MYR1.17 billion (US$265 million) contract signed on 23 March 2017. It is currently Malaysia's largest arms procurement deal with China.


The Keris-class LMS are 68.8 meters long, with a beam of 9 meters and draft of 2.8 meters. It displaces at 700 tons full load, and with a maximum speed of 22 knots and range of 2,000 nautical miles at 15 knots.



It is armed with a 20mm or 30mm remote-controlled naval gun and two manually-operated 12.7mm heavy machine gun mounts. Further up-arming can be done but is currently not among the RMN’s urgent requirement.



[1] New Straits Times
[2] Malaysia World News