Playing an important role in protecting national security, the Royal Malaysian Navy is equipped with many types of warships originating from Europe
Currently, the backbone of the Royal Malaysian Navy's 24th Corvette Squadron is four Laksamana-class small missile corvettes
which is based on the Fincantieri Type 550 corvette design
The ships were originally ordered by the Iraqi Navy, but the contract was stopped by United Nations sanctions, following the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq
In October 1995, the Malaysian Ministry of Finance signed a contract with Italian company Fincantieri
for the supply of two missile corvettes for the Royal Malaysian Navy
Two more missile corvettes were ordered in February 1997
Some specific aspects of the ships' design were modified and the ships were refitted to meet the requirements of the Royal Malaysian Navy
Accordingly, the ships have a displacement of about 675 tons, a length of 62.3 m, a beam of 9.3 m, and a draft of 2.8 m
The ship has four MTU 20 V 956 TB 92 diesel engines developing 14.8MW sustained power driving four shafts
The vessel can reach a top speed of 36 knots, a maximum sustained speed of 34 knots and an economical speed of 18 knots
The range at 18 knots is 2,300 nautical miles
The Laksamana class is equipped with a RAN 12L/X air and surface search radar
operating in D and I bands and a Kelvin Hughes 1007 navigation radar operating at I band
The ship is also fitted with a Global Positioning System
The ship's electronic warfare suite comprises the INS-3 radar interceptor and the TQN-2 radar jammer
Underwater sensors provided is the ASO 94-41 hull mounted active search and attack sonar supplied by Atlas Elektronik
The main armament of the class is the MBDA Otomat Mark 2 long-range sea-skimming missile with six missile launchers installed on the stern deck
three pointing to port and three pointing starboard
The missiles are armed with a 210 kg high-explosive warhead, fitted with impact and proximity fuses
The speed of the missile is Mach 0.9 and the range is 120 km
A medium-range air defence is provided with the semi-active radar homing MBDA Albatros SAM system
providing defence against aircraft and incoming anti-ship missiles
The Laksamanas are also armed with two triple Whitehead Alenia ILAS-3 torpedo launchers installed one each side on the main deck
firing the A244/S anti-submarine torpedoes with a range of 7 km
The class is armed with a 76 mm Oto Melara Super Rapid gun, installed on the bow deck in front of the citadel
The firing rate is 120 rounds per minute and range is up to 16 km
The ships are also armed with the 40 mm Oto Melara L70 twin gun in the multi-role mode over a range of 12.5 km and firing rate of 300 rounds/minute
The ship’s electronic warfare suite comprises the INS-3 radar interceptor and the TQN-2 radar jammer, both from Selex Sistemi Integrati
One Oto Melara 105mm decoy launcher is installed on both the port and starboard side of the ship
Each launcher has six launch tubes and is capable of firing illuminating rounds or chaff rounds to counter hostile radars and radar guided missiles