On the 27th of January 2023, Laksamana Datuk Abdul Rahman bin Ayob received his appointment as the 18th Chief of Navy from His Majesty Yang DiPertuan Agong al-Sultan Abdullah al-Ri'ayauddin al-Mustafa Billah Shah, replacing the outgoing Admiral Tan Sri Mohd Reza bin Mohd Sany on the helm of the Royal Malaysian Navy. With the appointment, indeed comes a very heavy responsibility to him as he has inherited a navy that is a shadow of its former self.

In his maiden speech on 30th of January 2023 which was made in the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), he outlined the need for the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) to take stock effectiveness of the operational plans that had been implemented during the last 5 years. 

According to him, the Navy shall be focusing on four key pillars as part of his vision to return the Navy to its former glory.

First Pillar - Focusing on Improving Fleet Readiness

He also mentioned that the Navy will be focusing on strengthening the Navy's Fleet to enable the service to focus on its core function, i.e. protecting the Nation's maritime sovereignty and interest. Therefore, it would be imperative to evaluate the impact from a financial perspective to optimise the Return-on-Investment (ROI) to the Nation. 

He outlined the three programmes that had provided positive ROI to the Navy, i.e. the Obsolescence Programme (OP), Repowering Programme, and Smart Refit programme, as these programme had allowed the Navy to ways to optimise the existing assets made available to the Navy.  

Second Pillar - Continuing a Modified 15-to-5 Programme

He also envisioned the need for RMN to continue with the 15-to-5 plan, albeit with slight modification.  

He outlined the need to proceed with the problem-plagued Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) programme and continuing with a second batch of Littoral Mission Ship (LMS). 

Note from writer: Back in 2017, RMN had introduced a long-term plan to improve RMN's fleet by increasing the number of vessels to 55 vessels by the year 2050 while concurrently rationalising the numbers to only 5 types to streamline and improve both the logistics line and training needs for the service. With a streamlined logistics, this was envisioned that the maintenance costing and logistics needs can be lowered in the long run while ensuring increased operational efficiency. 

The Minister of Defence Tok Mat had since announced that the Government will proceed with the programme to build 5 out of the 6 ships originally ordered by the Navy. The 6th ship that would be sacrificed was supposed to be named Mat Kilau. 

The 15-to-5 programme was modified in the sense that the LMS was originally envisioned as a lightly armed vessel focusing on patrol duty and rescue missions. Under this modified plan, the vessels will likely be armed. This may also mean that the Navy may be also abandoning the Fitted-For-But-Not-With (FFBNW) concept which was implemented in the early 2000s with the Kedah class Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV), as the Navy seek to optimise their fleet. If this is the case, this would be a positive development for the Navy. 

FFBNW means the ships are procured with the necessary system but without the accompanying weapons system. The weapons platform are procured separately and would only be fitted specifically for the missions the ship is assigned to. An innovation from Royal Australian Navy and Royal New Zealand Navy for their ANZAC class frigates, the concept was seriously mismanaged in Malaysia. An analogy of the FFBNW is like that of a normal PC. The ship is akin to the PC, while the weapons system is akin to the mouse, keyboard, and other computer paraphernalia that one can use by plugging them into the correct ports. 

Third Pillar - Inter-Service Operability

The Admiral also pointed out that RMN is part of the Government's machinery and Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF), and as part of the cog in the machinery, would need to work together with other service branches, specifically the Army and the Air Force in defending the Nation's sovereignty, and as part of the society, encapsulating the Whole of Government and Society or WoGos concept. The increased cooperation between the various service branches will allow the optimisation of each other's expertise resulting in multiplier effects that would benefit the forces and the Nation as a whole. 

To this, he highlighted the fact that the Navy's KD Mahawangsa is currently on the way back from resupplying Malaysian troops assigned to the MALBATT 850 task force which is currently operating in Lebanon as part of the United Nation's peacekeeping force.

Fourth Pillar - Enhancing Human Capital for RMN's Future

Outlining the "Cradle-to-Grave" plan, he envisioned that the Navy shall be able to provide a comprehensive support system to the Navy's personnel, including career path planning across the service. To this, a competitive work environment with the necessary support to guide the personnel to enhance their capabilities shall be provided.  

How to Achieve the Pillars?

To achieve the abovementioned pillars, Laksamana Datuk Abdul Rahman outlined the need for the Navy to increase cooperation with strategic partners, including foreign navies. To this, he specifically gave the example of RMN's participation in the US-organised Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval exercise, which is participated by many countries that borders the Pacific Ocean.

Other strategic partners such as the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (LIMA) organisers as strategic sourcing partners for the Navy.  

He also reminded the Navy's personnel that they must be ready to continuously improve their work processes given the ever-improving technologies that could be fielded. The work processes should also be improved to be more efficient and to do away with old impractical and inefficient processes. He also reminded the need to consider the financial impact of their processes to ensure that efficiency can be achieved.  

Finally, he reminded Navy personnel to strengthen their military ethos and ethics. Focusing on the values that are expected of Navy personnel, he reminded them that they need to maintain and strengthen their character at all times; focusing on the values of Honour, Loyalty, Courage, and Pride.  

Congratulations to the Navy Chief

Lastly, I would like to congratulate Laksamana Datuk Abdul Rahman for his appointment as the Navy Chief and wish him good luck as he has a tough job ahead of him. For the challenges that he would be facing, do read my prior article titled Royal Malaysian Navy - A Shadow of the Former Self.

Danny Liew is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!

The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.