Malaysia says first submarine unable to dive

[marcos98]

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia's first submarine, a European-made Scorpene delivered last September, has developed problems that make it unfit for diving, the defence minister said Thursday.

The KD Tunku Abdul Rahman sailed into a grand reception last year as the first of two commissioned from French contractor DCNS and Spain's Navantia for a total of 3.4 billion ringgit (961 million dollars).

Named after the country's first prime minister, it was hailed as an important acquisition despite opposition allegations of corruption in the deal.

"The submarine can still dive but when we detected the defects, we were advised that it should not dive," Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told reporters.

"The (parts found with) defects are still under warranty so the supplier and contractor are repairing them," he added.

Navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar said a problem first emerged in the submarine's cooling system last December. After being fixed, another defect was identified in a different system last month.

"We hope it can dive again after February 18 so we can carry out the tropical water trials," Abdul Aziz told reporters.

The navy chief said the second submarine, the KD Tun Razak which is named after the nation's second premier, is expected to arrive from France on May 31. It was originally scheduled for delivery in late 2009.

The two submarines have attracted controversy since the deal was signed in 2002.

Malaysia's opposition claims that a 540-million-ringgit commission was paid to a close associate of Prime Minister Najib Razak in brokering the contract.

Najib has denied there was any corruption in the deal, which was made when he was defence minister.

 

[pak-yes]

WTH has Malaysia has been Ripped off????

 

[marcos98]

wtf a submarine that cannot dive.....not cool
IN wouldnt be happy at all.........

 

[pak-yes]

Seriously those french bribes are very dangerous.

 

[jalip]

wtf a submarine that cannot dive.....not cool
IN wouldnt be happy at all.........

same for Pakistan we also have little sister Agosta

 

[jalip]

Seriously those french bribes are very dangerous.

They call it commission which most of companies in the west follows but for military sales they should give cash back when the deal is signed or to give some thing extra free

take a example of things which are sold by agents they always get commission on sales French have this tendency this is wrong for country to country sales they become bribes as they give incentive to the minister to buy their stuff.
But we can only blames ministers of purchasing parties for that if they are honest they should ask them to reduce price not to pay commission

 

[pak-yes]

And i have even heard that there is no punishment in french law for foreign bribes.

 

[DMLA]

It would be a good idea to note that many modern subs when rolled out faced teething issues. Collins and U-214 come to mind! These machines are so complex that problems may pop up. Also, most submarine builders have started using COTS extensively making them susceptible to problems when launched.