KUALA LUMPUR: All parties from the government and the commercial sectors have played their roles in the mobilisation phase starting June until December 2022 regarding the building of Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) that is still pending.
Senior Minister of Defence, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said, in this phase several efforts have been implemented by the government especially Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) and commercial bodies including Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT) and Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn. Bhd. (BNSSB).
Hishammuddin said, the building of LCS will be continued as soon as all negotiations and every agreement have been finalised in this mobilisation phase ending end of 2022.
“At least within these two years LCS 1 will be fully built. This period is realistic because when the mobilisation phase ends in December 2022 all parties involved will have 14 months to ensure the ship is completely built and will be on the water surface before running on trial like the Harbour Acceptance Test and Sea Acceptance Trail.
“The time frame should be abided by all the stakeholders especially BNSSB as the ship building company. As instructed by the Cabinet, the negotiation process report in this mobilisation process should be presented to the Cabinet Ministers according to the schedule.
“The monitoring structure of all the process in the mobilisation phase will be implemented rapidly by the Project Monitoring Committee (PMC) that is chaired by the Chief Secretary of Treasury, Ministry of Finance and the Chief Secretary of MINDEF,” Hishammuddin said in a statement.
The Senior Minister added, under PMC there is the Technical Committee of LCS that meets once in every two weeks. While waiting for the LCS to be fully built, RMN will apply for the allocation of the second batch of Littoral Mission Ship (LMS) that is fully equipped with weapons.
Hishammuddin added, the Ministry has made an application to the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), Prime Minister’s Department to implement this allocation.-Malaysia World News
