Esperando la tercera LMS para Malasia

Third LMS KD Panah 113 on her launching ceremony (photo : IRustang)

Waiting For The Panah PCM

The third Keris class Littoral Mission Ship (LMS) is expected to arrive at its homebase at Kota Kinabalu Naval Base near Teluk Sepanggar on October 2021.

It is widely believed that the third LMS known as the LMS3 or Panah Pre-commissioned Module (PCM) will be commissioned into service with the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) once arriving at the base.

Just llike its older sister ships namely the KD Keris and KD Sundang, it will undergo work outs before being deployed. Both the Keris and Sundang have seen deployments to the Gugusan Semarang Peninjau in Spratlys and Beting Patinggi Ali off Bintulu to monitor Vietnamese trawlers and Chinese Coast Guard cutters intruding Malaysian waters.

It is likely that due to their Chinese origin, they will be Westernised in stages by introducing and integrating Western made equipment, weapon and system. This exercise is similar to the one conducted on Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) MiG-MAPO built Mikoyan-Gurenvich Mig-29N/NUB (NATO Reporting Name: Fulcrum) supersonic interceptor jets.

MFH