THE CHIEF OF NAVY CLARIFIES ON THE STATES OF SUBMARINE
1. Lately there has been a spate of articles in the media reporting the ‘status’ of the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) submarines. Two reports in particular highlighted purported major defects in the nation’s first submarine, the KD TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN (KD TAR) that supposedly rendered it unable to dive. The RMN however regrets that these reports have been highly inaccurate and misleading resulting in the public being grossly misinformed of the actual status of the KD TAR. Based on the articles published in the media as mentioned above, the RMN wishes to state the following: a. Prior to arriving safely in Kota Kinabalu on 17 September 2009, the KD TAR had sailed approximately 8300 nautical miles with 31 days submerged out of the 43 days spent at sea. As such, the question of “Initial Operational Capability” or being “declared fully operational” does not arise as the submarine would not have completed the journey safely if it was not fully operational. b. At ...