Second Phase Sea Trials For Tun Razak

Recently, only news on KD Tun Abdul Rahman has dominated the local news. According to this Spanish news release, The second Malaysian Scorpene Submarine, Tun Razak, has now been returned to the water after being dry-docked for two months. It is expected that she will continue with her second phase of sea trials early next month that will continue until early October. The official handing over ceremony of the submarine to the Royal Malaysian Navy is reportedly planned for the end of October.

First Sea Trials of Malaysian Submarine “Tun Razak”
Tue, Feb 17, 2009

Navantia began sea trials in waters off Cartagena of the second Scorpene submarine that the consortium formed by the French company DCNS and NAVANTIA is building for the Royal Malaysian Navy, and which had been christened ‘Tun Razak’.

The aim of this sortie was to commence checks on the operation of the different equipment that has been installed on the submarine. This first phase of trials will last until the end of April.

After a subsequent period of approximately 3 months during which the submarine will be in dry dock for routine maintenance work, the second phase of sea trials will be performed until October 25 of this year, the date scheduled for delivery of the Tun Razak to the Royal Malaysian Navy

Based on the earlier report above, it seems that the second Scorpene progress is going well and is on schedule. In this case it may be possible Tun Razak will taste the salty waters of our nation before the end of the year instead of March 2010 as initially expected. Looks like this year seems to be a busy year of inducting new assets to the fleet for the navy, with the commissioning of two Kedah class patrol vessels and the submarines.