The Lumut Naval Shipyard video, which Naval News obtained from the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) today, shows LCS 1 Maharaja Lela, being launched (lowered via shiplift) and entering the water for the very first time. This took place on May 23rd, according to a RMN source.
Lumut Naval Shipyard and the RMN today held an official event in presence of Malaysia’s Defense Minister Yang Berhormat Dato’ Seri Mohamad Khaled Nordin and other officials.
LCS 1 Maharaja Lela is now at fitting out stage pierside, ahead of its builders’ trials.
According to a Lumut Naval Shipyard representative that spoke with Naval News at Defense Services Asia 2024, the shipyard had targeted to downslip LCS 1 Maharaja Lela by the end of May. As LCS 1 Maharaja Lela had been ceremonially launched in 2017 before being returned to a hangar, the shipyard considers the milestone as a “downslip” rather than a launch.
The downslip of LCS 1 Maharaja Lela comes shortly after Lumut Naval Shipyard announced that it had passed the critical design review for the Littoral Combat Ship’s Integrated Platform Management System, with the shipyard holding a ceremony on May 15 with L3HARRIS MAPPS Sdn Bhd and the Royal Malaysian Navy’s LCS project team commemorating the milestone.
Fitting out of the ship will likely not be completed before August, as a joint review of LCS 1 Maharaja Lela’s design with Naval Group (LCS 1 Maharaja Lela and the other Littoral Combat Ships use an enlarged version of Naval Group’s Gowind corvette design) will only conclude then. According to the schedule of the rebooted program, LCS 1 Maharaja Lela’s harbor acceptance tests are planned to begin in November 2024, with sea acceptance tests in October 2025, ahead of the planned handover of the ship to the RMN in August 2026.
KD Maharaja Lela (2501) main specifications
Displacement: 3,100 tons full load
Length: 111 m (364 ft 2 in)
Beam: 16 m (52 ft 6 in)
Draught: 3.85 m (12 ft 8 in)
Propulsion: CODAD
Speed: 28 knots (52 km/h)
Range: 5,000 nautical miles (9,300 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement: 138 sailors
Weapon systems:
- Main gun: 1 × Bofors 57 mm gun
- Secondary gun: 2 × MSI DS30M 30 mm cannon
- SAM: N/A
- ASM: 8 × Naval Strike Missile SSM
- Torpedo: 2 × triple J+S torpedo launcher
The LCS Program So Far
The Royal Malaysian Navy announced at the 2023 Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition that it had signed a new contract to restart work on the Littoral Combat Ship program, after work stopped in 2019 due to financial problems at original shipbuilders Boustead Naval Shipbuilding. The new contract reduces the number of Littoral Combat Ships on order to five from six, with the five frigates to be delivered between 2026 and 2029.
The new contract also resulted in the nationalization of Boustead Naval Shipbuilding, with the company becoming Lumut Naval Shipyard after being purchased by Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance.
The original plan for the Littoral Combat Ship program would have seen all six frigates delivered to the Royal Malaysian Navy in 2023.
Correction: The frigate is currently known as LCS 1 Maharaja Lela, and will only be named KD Maharaja Lela once commissioned by the Royal Malaysian Navy.
Additional reporting by Xavier Vavasseur
