LCS project completion independent of RCI, says Khaled

A royal commission of inquiry into delays in the littoral combat ship (LCS) project will not decide when or how quickly the vessels will be completed, says defence minister Khaled Nordin.

He said the shipbuilder had been told to accelerate work, Bernama reported.

“Whether (LCS 1) is finished or not … it does not depend on the RCI. That is a separate matter. If it did, the ship would never be finished.

“That is why we asked the shipbuilder to speed up work and make sure there are no more delays,” he was quoted as saying after an event in Kota Tinggi today.

He was responding to Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Karim, who wanted the LCS probe to be expedited following the Auditor-General’s Report 2/2026, which found the project 7.55% behind schedule as of June 25.

Lumut Naval Shipyard (Lunas), the company responsible for building Malaysia’s first LCS, has set April 2027 as the new delivery date for Phase 1.

The new date was set after Lunas informed the ministry that it could not provide a commitment or guarantee that the ship would be delivered by December this year.

Khaled said any investigation into the project should be left to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the relevant authorities, pointing to court action taken against a former navy chief who had been managing director of Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd.

On replacing Norway’s missiles, he said the government was still in talks with several shortlisted countries to supply surface-to-surface missiles for LCS 1.

The procurement did not depend on allocations from the 2027 budget. He said the ministry wanted to ensure the ship did not take too long to be fully equipped.

He said the ship was currently equipped with surface-to-air missiles, anti-submarine warfare capabilities and an electronic jamming system, while surface-to-surface missiles were yet to be installed.