In October 1995 the Malaysian Ministry of Finance signed a contract with Fincantieri for the supply of two 650t missile corvettes for the Royal Malaysian Navy. A further two missile corvettes were ordered in February 1997. The first two ships, Hang Nadim and Tun Abdul Jamil, were commissioned in July 1997. The second two, Muhammed Amin and Tan Pusmah, were delivered in July 1999.

The original ship design had been ordered by the Iraqi Navy, but the supply of the missile corvettes was stopped by United Nations sanctions. Some specific aspects of the ships’ design were modified and the ships were refitted to meet the requirements of the Royal Malaysian Navy.

IPN 10 command and control system

The ship’s command and control system is the IPN 10 for the first two ships and the IPN-S for the second two ships, both supplied by Alenia Marconi Systems (now Selex Sistemi Integrati), together with Thales Nederland Link Y. The IPN system gathers, correlates and filters the information from the ship’s sensors, and communications and data networks. In April 2002, AMS was awarded a contract for the upgrade of the IPN 10 on the Hang Nadim and the Tun Abdul Jamil to the IPN-S standard.

The fire control system is based on two NA21 and one DARDO system together with their dedicated radar, supplied by Selex Sistemi Integrati.

Anti-ship and anti-air missiles

The ship’s long-range sea-skimming missile system is the Otomat Mark 2/Teseo by MBDA (formerly Alenia and Matra BAe Dynamics). Six Otomat Teseo Mark 2 missile launchers, three pointing to port and three pointing starboard, are installed on the stern deck. The missiles are armed with a 210kg high-explosive warhead, fitted with impact and proximity fuses. The speed of the missile is Mach 0.9 and the range is 120km.

The ship’s medium-range air defence system is the Albatros supplied by MBDA, which provides defence against aircraft and incoming anti-ship missiles. Albatros fires the Aspide missile which has a speed of Mach 2.5 and a 15km range. It uses semi-active radar homing to deliver a 33kg warhead. The Albatros launcher is installed on the raised bridge deck to the stern of the main mast.

Guns

The ship’s main gun, the 76mm 62 calibre Oto Melara Super Rapid is installed on the bow deck in front of the citadel. The firing rate is 120 rounds/minute and range is up to 16km. The ship’s multi-role gun is the 40mm Oto Melara L70 twin gun which has a range of 12.5km and firing rate of 300 rounds/minute.

ILAS-3 torpedo launcher

The ships torpedo system is the ILAS-3 torpedo launcher from Whitehead Alenia of Salvanio, Italy. The triple launchers are installed one each side on the main deck. The A244/S anti-submarine torpedoes use active, passive and mixed mode homing to a target range of 7km.

Countermeasures

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.

Sensor suite

The ship’s radar suite consists of: RAN 12L/X air and surface search radar, supplied by Selex Sistemi Integrati and operating in D and I bands and Kelvin Hughes 1007 navigation radar operating at I band. The ship is also fitted with a Global Positioning System (GPS)

The ship is equipped with the ASO 94-41 hull mounted active search and attack sonar supplied by Atlas Elektronik.

Propulsion systems

The ship has four MTU 20 V 956 TB 92 diesel engines developing 14.8MW sustained power driving four shafts. Three diesel generators each yield 280KVA. The engines provide a dash 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.