Malaysian Littoral Mission Ship Batch 2 Launched
MALAYSIA’S lead Littoral Mission Ship Batch 2 (LMSB2) vessel for the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) was launched at Istanbul Shipyard, Turkiye in an official naming and launch ceremony attended by the Queen of Malaysia Her Majesty Raja Zarith Sofiah. STM’s ADA-class future lead vessel was named Tunku Laksamana Abdul Jalil, after the King His Majesy Sultan Ibrahim and Her Majesty’s fourth prince Tunku Abdul Jalil. The late prince had held the title Tunku Laksamana of Johor before succumbing to cancer in 2015, Laksamana being Malay for Admiral.
Also present at the ceremony were the late prince’s siblings Their Royal Highnesses Tunku Idris Iskandar, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tunku Abu Bakar, Malaysia’s defence minister Khaled Nordin, Malaysian defence deputy secretary-general (development) Abdul Hadi Omar, RMN Western Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Baharudin Wan Md Nor and Turkiye’s deputy defence minister Musa Heybet as well as other senior officials.
The name commemorates the late prince’s courage, resilience and fighting spirit, reflected through the slogan ‘Fight Like Jalil’, as well as his charitable legacy through the Tunku Laksamana Johor Cancer Foundation. Its name also carries special significance for the RMN, as the title Laksamana symbolises the supreme naval commander entrusted with defending the nation’s maritime sovereignty, while serving as a source of inspiration for RMN personnel serving aboard the combat vessel.
“To have this ship named after Jalil means a lot to our family, for my husband and I, as his parents and our sons and daughters, as his siblings. It is a tribute which we appreciate very much. Jalil was the Tunku Laksamana of Johor, with Laksamana being a title which bears great significance in the classical Malay Sultanates as commander of the naval fleets and also as a diplomat to foreign missions,” according to Her Majesty Raja Zarith Sofiah.
Dubbed the Tunku-classs, its launch marks a key engineering milestone, with the ship now entering the setting-to-work (STW) phase involving the integration of combat and sensor systems. Malaysia opted to procure three of STM’s ADA-class corvette design for the project in a government-to-government (G2G) deal, making STM the main contractor for the project. The same class of vessels are operated by the Turkish Naval Forces and the Pakistan Navy. The Tunku Laksamana Abdul Jalil is slated for handover to the RMN by the end of 2027.–shp/adj/dl (Pix:PALACE)