Thread by @LiewChinTong

The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is a type of warship capable of patrolling Malaysia’s maritime zone, fighting other enemy surface ships and submarines, and providing defence against air attacks at sea. (1/8)

As a modern surface combatant, it will provide Malaysia with much needed modern naval combat capabilities, especially in a time where aggressive intrusions are being carried out in our maritime spaces. (2/8)

It is one of five different ship types identified by the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) in its capability development plan, the 15-to-5 Transformation Program.

The program intends to consolidate the RMN’s inventory of 15 different ship types to only five. (3/8)

This would help local industry players to streamline their supply chain and give them greater clarity for business planning, while also making it easier for the RMN to maintain its fleet of warships. (4/8)

The LCS will replace several different corvettes & frigates built by various foreign shipyards at dif times in the past 3 decades. A majority of the ships currently in service are well past their useful service lives and are no longer strictly economical to maintain,... (5/8)

...nor do they provide adequate capability in the current threat environment. The plan under 15-to-5 would see a batch of six ships built and entering service in a time period of every six months beginning with April 2019. (6/8)

Eventually, a second batch of six ships wd also be procured, for a total of 12 ships. It's now 2021. The first ship of the first batch is barely 60% completed. The shipyard responsible for their production, Boustead Naval Shipyard, is rumored to be in dire financial waters. (7/8)

Meanwhile, the Government is now considering either halting the project, or completing it with only two ships built even though enough money has been paid for four ships. Where did it all go so wrongly? (8/8)