The Submarine that Never Was

When Malaysian govt decided to buy a couple of Scorpene class submarines from DCNS, it was inevitable that the issue became politicised. Amongst the accusations thrown at our Navy was we had paid RM6.1 billion to buy a couple of scrap metals as submarines.

RMN Scorpene class Submarines, renamed as Perdana Menteri class. Photo sourced from Wikipedia. 

What more, some of these rumour mongers said they had heard it from their relatives who were serving in the Navy. They saw the rusting submarines under the sun berthed at Lumut Naval Base.

Many of us defence writers had tried to correct this perception for years. True, we bought a couple of submarines. They were bought brand new, and no, they are not rusting out at Lumut Naval Base.

The culprit of the rumour is actually PSC Naval Dockyard Sdn Bhd. Well, it was not their intention, but it was the unintended consequences of their actions when they purchased a couple of Zwaardvis class submarines from Holland, hoping to score quick cash from the Navy.

Photos of Zwaardvis class submarines rusting in Lumut. Photo credit to now defunct defence magazine, Tempur.

Both submarines were not only rusting, but were rickety and may not be sea-worthy anymore. But that didn't stop the then owner of PSC Naval Dockyard Sdn Bhd, Datuk Amin Shah from his greed of trying to push these submarines to the Navy. I still hold that this man single-handedly destroyed our Royal Malaysian Navy.

Thankfully, the Navy was adamant and Zwaardvis never made it even through the selection. PSC ended up with a couple of rusting scraps, which they had sold later as scrap metals.

As for him, he is still a free man, despite single-handedly destroying RMN.

Scorpene (Perdana Menteri Class) submarines

To-date, I will rate the purchase of Scorpene submarines, or Perdana class subs as the best buy made by the Navy.
It is today the world's most advanced diesel submarine, and would only be overtaken by Singapore's newly-made purchase, just signed Oct this year.

While the price tag seems to be too high, as compared to another submarine offered by the Russians (Kilo class submarine), you could not compare what is the latest design against a 20, almost 30 year-old design. Going along with the car analogy today, you can't compare the quality of a 1980's Honda Accord against a 2007 Toyota Camry.

As for allegations that the allegations that the submarine could not dive. The Navy has clarified that this was due to minor errors that was easily rectified by the French maker as it was still in warranty period. This problem was actually an anticipated problem, due to the thermal difference of European waters and Malaysian waters. The RSN's Sjoormen class subs had the same problem in the early days of operation.

This allegation got worse as another of the contract contender had bought 2 used yet dilapidated Zwardvis Zwaardis class submarines, hoping that they could get easy bucks by selling them to the Navy. As the subs were not according to our Navy's requirements, they later were sold off as scraps.
It is also seldom highlighted that in Dec 2011, LGE had boarded KD TAR for a 90 min dive. Though never mentioned, the dive area is believed to be somewhere nearer to Indian Ocean as LGE took a boat ride from Langkawi island.

Toothless allegation can be easily encountered. In 2010, the Navy had tested the submarine's weaponry by launching a SM39 Exocet torpedo at a 40m long target. It was demolished.
Armed with this weapon, was why in March this year that China's PLA - Navy did not try to further provoke Malaysian Navy vessel KD Terengganu (do correct if I'm wrong) which was entasked to escort 4 China's PLA - Navy vessels which tried to conduct a military exercise at James Shoal, located only 80km from Bintulu town.

First published on Facebook via comment section on the We are Not Malaysian Zombies wall.  Graciously saved by my dearest friend, Lim Sian See and tagged to my wall on 31 December 2013.