Malaysia Becomes DCNS’ 1st Customer for Gowind Ships

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In October 2010, Malaysia’s Boustead received a letter of intent from their government for 6 “second-generation patrol vessels.” In January 2012, South Africa’s DefenceWeb reported that DCNS and its local submarine & surface ship partner, Boustead Naval Shipyard, had won a contract worth $2.8 billion to supply 6 Gowind family ships to Malaysia, which would have been the type’s 1st paid order.

To win, DCNS reportedly beat Dutch firm Damen, whose scalable SIGMA ships have been purchased by neighboring Indonesia; as well as TKMS of Germany, who supplied Malaysia’s 6 existing MEKO 100 Kedah Class OPVs and its 2 Kasturi Class light frigates. Now these Gowind ships’ exact configuration, and equipment set is more certain:

The Gowind Family & Malaysia’s Choices

Gowind OPV L’Adroit

The Gowind family isn’t a single design. It’s a family of ships with some common systems and design elements, designed to scale from inshore patrol needs to heavy corvette/ light frigate designs. DCNS has been exploring partnerships with lower-cost foreign shipyards as part of its overall export strategy, and had been negotiating with Bulgaria along those lines. Memoranda now give it footholds in South Africa as well as Malaysia.

All Gowind ships are shaped for stealth. The single central mast replaces several sensor masts in other ships, and provides both improved radar cross-section signature, and a 360-degree view for radars and other sensors. The ship’s propulsion system is based on Combined Diesel and Diesel (CODAD), but has no gas exhaust chimney to emit infrared plumes, channeling exhaust into the water-jets instead. Those water jets also create better maneuverability in shallow waters, and contribute to high-speed performance.

Gowind Control/120 Designs like FS L’Adroit, on loan to France for 3 years as a promotional exercise, are 1,100t offshore patrol vessels, with minimal armament. L’Adroit carries only a light autocannon and non-lethal weapons, for instance. Gowind Presence inshore patrol vessels are even smaller.

On the other hand, Bulgaria’s interest in Gowind ships involved fully-armed 2,250t Gowind Combat/200 corvettes, carrying 57mm guns, vertical-launch cells, anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles, and a helicopter up to the 10-ton class.

Malaysia’s Gowinds

Subsequent reports from Navy Recognition indicated that Malaysia is interested in the Gowind Combat corvettes. Provisional specifications appear to make them the size of small frigates, only slightly smaller than the USA’s Littoral Combat Ship:

Length: 107 meters
Breadth: 16 meters
Full load displacement: 2,730 tonnes
Max speed: 28 knots
Crew: 106
Range: 5,000 nm
Endurance: 21 days

The ship models shown at a recent defense exhibition show a full helicopter hangar. Malaysia’s Navy currently flies the AgustaWestland Super Lynx 300 naval helicopter, and Eurocopter’s AS 350 Fennec light utility helicopter. With only 6 of each in stock, however, and other naval platforms (esp. Lekiu & Kedah Classes) that need them, Malaysia may need to buy or transfer new airframes, if they want the Gowind fleet to have their own on-board helicopters.

Key Sensors

Early indications are that DCNS’ preference for its SETIS combat system will win the day, over the Malaysian Navy’s reported preference for Thales’ Tacticos.

• Thales SMART-S Mk2 3D multibeam radar
• Rheinmetall’s TMEO Mk2 – TMX/EO Electro-optical tracking and fire control system
• Thales Captas family for hull sonar
• ASW suite with towed array sonar

Weapons Array

Pictures from DSA 2012 Defense exhibition in Kuala Lumpur appear to show 12 vertical launch cells, mounted behind the main gun. These will be DCNS’ Sylver family. Sylver A35 cells are the most likely choice, given the ship’s size and expected weapon fit.

• BAE Bofors 57 mm Mk2 main gun
• MBDA VL-MICA air defense missiles and their ACL containers in the Sylver cells
• 8 of MBDA’s MM40 Exocet Block III anti-ship missiles mounted topside
• 2 of MSI’s remotely operated 30mm guns on top of the helicopter hanger

Contracts & Key Events

April 20/12: Navy Recognition personnel at the DSA 2012 Defense exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia look at a Gowind model, and talk to an official from Boustead about the ships’ expected statistics and fit-out. See above for the ships’ expected fit-out, and see the article for pictures of the model.

The official added that, contra earlier reports, contract negotiations are still in progress. Navy Recognition | DCNS re: its exhibits.

Jan 17/12: DefenceWeb reports Malaysia’s selection of DCNS’ Gowind ships for a $2.8 billion contract. Deliveries are expected to run from 2017-2020, if all goes well.

The DefenceWeb report is very unclear concerning the exact type and fit-out for these ships, except to state that the shipbuilders wanted DCNS’ SETIS combat management system, while the Royal Malaysian Navy wants the Thales Tacticos systems already on one of Malaysia’s Kasturi Class light frigates. It did not state how this conflict was resolved.

Read more at: http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/