Malaysia provides insight on revised naval “15 to 5” Transformation Roadmap

 

A screenshot of the RMN's revised 15-to-5 Transformation Roadmap. Photo c/o Malaysian Defence.

The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) released information providing an insight on its planned revision of its “15 to 5” Transformation Roadmap.

The original program was meant to reduce the number of ship types in the RMN’s fleet from 15 types to just 5 types, which was envisioned to provide improved efficiency in sustaining the ships, and reduced cost and simplifying maintenance.

The new plan, which is now called the RMN Organizational Restructuring 2024 or Re-Org24 not only includes changes in their asset procurement plans but also in re-organizing  and overhaul of existing units, establishment of new units including  the RMN Warfare and Doctrine Centre, among other changes.

This will allow the RMN to maintain strong maritime defense and deterrence capabilities and be at par with its regional peers.

Re-Org24 also coincides with the 90th founding anniversary of the RMN, which unfortunately was jolted by the loss of two naval helicopters and 10 personnel in a fatal accident in the skies above the RMN’s Lumut Naval Base.

Based on the information graphics displayed by the RMN at DSA 2024, the RMN plans to maintain 20,000 uniformed personnel, and maintain a fleet of 12 Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) or light frigates, 18 Littoral Missions Ships(LMS) or corvettes, 18 Patrol Vessels (PV), 4 Submarines, 3 Multi-Role Support Ships (MRSS), as well as a variety of force multipliers including naval helicopters, land and ship-based drones, and small coastal patrol boats.

The plan also includes maintaining a fleet of 4 Mine Counter-Measures Vessels (MCMV) and 2 Hydrographic ships, both of which were not originally part of the original 15-to-5 Transformation Roadmap. It was previously indicated that mine warfare and hydrographic missions will be conducted by the Patrol Vessels using containerized mission modules that can be removed or installed from the ships when needed.

The Littoral Combat Ships will be Anti-Surface Warfare (AsuW), Anti-Air Warfare (AAW), Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), and Electronic Warfare (EW) capability, as well as capability for land attack. Meanwhile the Littoral Missions Ships would have ASuW and EW capabilities only. 

The Multi-Role Support Ships will have amphibious capabilities and could be used for strategic sealift and Humanitarian and Disaster Relief operations. The ships will  have hangar and landing deck space for 2 helicopters, and well as a floodable well deck for 2 landing crafts, as well as cargo space for 20 combat vehicles.

So far, the RMN has recently continued the construction of the first batch of Littoral Combat Ships based on an upsized variant of Naval Group’s Gowind-class corvette, although the number was reduced from 6 to 5. 

It has also selected Turkey’s Ada-class corvette as the basis for its second batch of Littoral Missions Ship , with negotiations ongoing between Malaysian and Turkish authorities.

[1] Malaysian Defence

[2] The Sun