STM starts work on Malaysia’s three new corvettes

Turkish shipyard STM Savunma Teknolojileri Mühendislik ve Ticaret A.Ş. (STM) has held a keel-laying ceremony for the three new corvettes that it is building for the Royal Malaysian Navy.

As disclosed, the milestone marks the beginning of the construction process, while the ceremony itself took place at the Istanbul Shipyard.

STM, as the main contractor, will be responsible for all phases of the project, starting from design to performance and from construction to delivery.

The Turkish firm will undertake the ship design, project management (including construction management), material/system procurements, integration design and assembly, testing and integrated logistic support (ILS) activities, as well as the preparation of the design and ILS documents related to the project.

The construction of the corvettes will take place in Türkiye within the scope of the Littoral Mission Ship Batch-2 (LMSB2) Project. The company signed the G2G Memorandum of Understanding on the Procurement of Defense Products with Malaysia in Ankara on June 10, 2024. These corvettes’ steel-cutting ceremony was held in Istanbul on December 4, 2024.

STM’s littoral mission ship (LMSB2) is a highly flexible platform that can be tasked with a wide range of duties including ASUW, AAW, asymmetric warfare (ASYW), and EW, drawing upon the capabilities of the most advanced sensors and weapons suite and command and control system.

Main Dimensions

• Overall Length (Loa): 99.56 meters;
• Beam: 14.42 meters;
• Draft: 3.94 meters;
• Displacement: ~2,500 tons.

STM, in its role as main contractor, turned to the Turkish defense sector for equipment such as the combat management system; the Gun Fire Control System, to be supplied by Havelsan; and the 3D search radar, fire control radar, IFF, 30mm gun, ESM and chaff decoy system, as well as other electronic sensors, to be supplied by Aselsan. 

Roketsan will be supplying its ATMACA surface-to-surface G/M system.