Singapore Lays Keel Of Second MRCV Mothership

SINGAPORE laid the keel for the Republic of Singapore Navy’s (RSN) second Multi-Role Combat Vessel (MRCV) at ST Engineering Marine Limited on January 27. Following the lead vessel Victory’s launch around two months ago, the Valour is second of six planned MRCVs.

The keel laying ceremony was attended by Chief of Defence Force Vice Admiral (VADM) Aaron Beng, RSN chief Rear Admiral (RADM) Sean Wat and senior officials and representatives from the RSN, Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) and ST Engineering Marine.

Speaking on the milestone, CDF VAdm Beng said, “Our MRCVs are only at the beginning of an exciting journey. While we can only imagine what further boundaries they will push during their time in service, we have every confidence that they will do much for the RSN, and for Singapore. This is the mission entrusted to the men and women of the Flotilla – to build the ships well, to operationalise them effectively, and to continue to fly the RSN’s flag high.”

The MRCV is designed to be a mothership for unmanned aerial, surface and sub-surface systems, with six MRCVs aimed to supplant the existing Victory-class missile corvettes (MCVs) progressively from 2028 onwards as the RSN’s largest surface vessels. The third vessel and so on will be named Vigilance, Valiant, Vigour and Vengeance, retaining the names of the older Victory-class corvettes as well as their pennant numbers.

Equipped with advanced sensors, weapon systems and network capabilities, this class of vessel is capable of handling a wide range of threats, and function as a Command ship with advanced automation. Furthermore, an MRCV will be able to operate safely and effectively with a smaller crew compared to other warships of similar size and capability.

While it is a mothership, the MRCV carries an array of armaments, including MBDA’s MICA and ASTER surface-to-air missiles (SAM) and surface-to-surface missiles (SSM) in addition to Leonardo’s STRALES 76mm gun along with Rafael’s 30mm Typhoon Mk30-C remote weapons station (RWS).

Its operational range exceeds 7,000 nautical miles, twice that of the Formidable-class frigates which are RSN’s principal combatants. Meanwhile, it has an endurance of over 21 days without refuelling or resupplying.

The first MRCV, Victory was launched in October 2025 and currently undergoing outfitting, platform and combat systems integration, and subsequently acceptance trials. In parallel, pioneer MRCV crew have also begun training to operationalise the ship in the coming years.

Built by the republic’s ST Engineering, the MRCV is the result of a joint development spearheaded by the DSTA, DSO National Laboratories and ST Engineering, together with international partners including Swedish firm Saab Kockums who is responsible for providing the vessels’ composite superstructures, while Denmark’s Odense Maritime Technology (OMT) contributed to the design.–-shp/adj/dl (Pix:RSN, MINDEF)