The ''Keris'' class are a class of Littoral Mission Ship of the

Royal Malaysian Navy The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN, ; Jawi alphabet, Jawi: ) is the naval arm of the Malaysian Armed Forces. RMN is the main agency responsible for the country's maritime surveillance and defence operations. RMN's area of operation consists of 603,2 ...

(RMN). This ship is a offshore patrol vessel type with a length of and displacing 700 tons. A total of 18 ships are planned. As of 2018, four ships have been funded by the Malaysian government.

Development

The ships will be built by

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

companies under the joint development agreement. Malaysia and China agreed to jointly develop a Littoral Mission Ship and, two ships will be built in China by China Shipbuilding and Offshore International Co. Ltd, the rest will be built in Malaysia by local company Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation (BHIC). The first ship was to be delivered to the

by 2019, the second and third by 2020 and the fourth by 2021.

Description

The ships are enlarged and improved version of the Durjoy-class large patrol craft of the

Bangladesh Navy The Bangladesh Navy () is the naval warfare branch of the Bangladesh Armed Forces, responsible for the defence of Bangladesh's of maritime territorial area from any external threat, the security of sea ports and exclusive economic zones of Ban ...

but armed with only guns as per requirement of the

. The ships able to carry up three standard ISO containers. The ships will support missions including

anti-surface warfare Anti-surface warfare (ASuW or ASUW) is the branch of naval warfare concerned with the suppression of surface combatants. More generally, it is any weapons, sensors, or operations intended to attack or limit the effectiveness of an adversary's ...

mine warfare Mine warfare refers to the use of different types of explosive devices: *Land mine, a weight-triggered explosive device intended to maim or kill people or to disable or destroy vehicles * Minelaying, deployment of explosive mines at sea **Naval min ...

hydrography Hydrography is the branch of applied sciences which deals with the measurement and description of the physical features of oceans, seas, coastal areas, lakes and rivers, as well as with the prediction of their change over time, for the primary ...

and

intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance ISTAR stands for Military intelligence, intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance. In its macroscopic sense, #ISTAR, ISTAR is a practice that links several battlefield functions together to assist a combat force in employ ...

(ISR) duties.

Improved design

Revolutionary Littoral Mission Ship

BHIC revealed a newer design of the Littoral Mission Ship in ''Defence Service Asia 2018'' named Revolutionary Littoral Mission Ship. The design will be more than in length and will incorporate new capabilities to fulfill the Royal Malaysian Navy's requirements. It will have low radar cross section where BHIC has already improved their

stealth Stealth may refer to: Military *Stealth technology, technology used to conceal ships, aircraft, and missiles **Stealth aircraft, aircraft which use stealth technology ** Stealth ground vehicle, ground vehicles which use stealth technology ** Ste ...

design and the addition of a

flight deck The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface on which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters ...

to accommodate a medium-sized helicopter. This new design will be offered by BHIC to the Royal Malaysian Navy for the next batch after all the four ships of the initial design were jointly constructed by Malaysia and China companies. A total of 18 ships of this class are planned to be ordered by the Royal Malaysian Navy.

Program revised

After the government changed in

2018 Malaysian general election General elections were held in Malaysia on Wednesday, 9 May 2018. At stake were all 222 seats in the Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of parliament. The 13th Parliament was dissolved by Prime Minister Najib Razak on 7 April 2018. It would have be ...

, the Littoral Mission Ship acquisition program was revised in early 2019 to reduce the procurement costs and shorten the delivery process. Through this new contract all four ships will be built by China from the original contract, which was initially two vessels built by China and the rest built by Malaysia. In September 2020, Malaysia planned that the next batch of the ship will be the new design from other company. Its includes a 68 m offshore patrol vessel concept from Netherland shipbuilder Damen known as the Damen Stan Patrol Vessel 6811, a 70.7 m offshore patrol vessel from US shipbuilder Swiftships, a 70.2 m offshore patrol vessel from German shipbuilder Fassmer and a 70 m offshore patrol vessel from local company Preston. While the joint venture between Malaysian company,

Destini Destini Berhad is a Malaysian company that is involved in heavy industry, defence and oil and gas. This company was formed in 1991 under the name of Satang Jaya Sdn Bhd. At the beginning, this company involved in the business as a supplier of a ...

, and Netherlands-based shipbuilder, Damen, offered the proposal that similar to the ship that ordered by Malaysia Coast Guard which is an 83 m Damen 1800 OPV.

Ships

References

{{Royal Malaysian Navy Ships Patrol vessels of the Royal Malaysian Navy Patrol boat classes China–Malaysia relations