The Royal Malaysian Navy commissioned its two new training ships, KD Gagah Samudera and KD Teguh Samudera, in a ceremony at the TLDM Lumut naval base on April 26.
Thursday’s commissioning ceremony was historic in that it marked the first time the Malaysian Navy commissioned two ships in a single day.
The two 76-meter vessels were commissioned together despite the fact that the first vessel in the class, KD Gagah Samudera, started training deployments in March 2017.
The vessels have a range of 2,500 nautical miles and accommodate 60 trainees. One 30mm and two 12.7mm machine guns additionally enable the ships to carry out patrol tasks.
A contract for the construction of Gagah Samudera and Teguh Samudera was signed between the defense ministry and Malaysia’s NGV Tech who was to work together with South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) on the delivery of ships to the Malaysian Navy.
The NGV Tech shipyard was foreclosed by Maybank soon after the second of two ships was launched in February 2013 and another shipbuilder, Grade One Marine Sdn Bhd, was contracted to complete and deliver the ships.
Teguh Samudera, the second of two ships in the class, was delivered to the navy by Grade One Marine earlier this month.