MALAYSIA TAKES DELIVERY OF ITS FIRST SUBMARINE

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has taken delivery of its first
submarine -- a Scorpene built by French military shipyard DCNS in partnership
with Spanish shipyard Navantia.

A Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) statement Wednesday said Nazri Siron, secretary
of the Defence Ministry's Procurement Division, headed a team which took
delivery of the submarine, named KD Tunku Abdul Rahman after Malaysia's first
prime minister, at the French naval base in Toulon, France, last Saturday.

The team also comprised First Admiral Khairudin Khalid, director-general of
the Engineering Division, and members of the RMN submarine project team.

At the ceremony, DCNS was represented by its Scorpene project director
Didier Husson and Navantia by its managing director Manuel Filgureira.

Chief of Navy Abdul Aziz Jaafar witnessed the handing over.

Abdul Aziz congratulated the crew of the submarine on their having surpassed
all obstacles and challenges in qualifying to become the crew of the nation's
first submarine.

The Scorpene, a conventional submarine built in Cherbourg, France, can
monitor the country's waters to a depth of between 100 and 200 metres, the
statement said.

It also said that the submarine was equipped with six torpedo tubes which
can fire simultaneously, anti-ship surface missiles and anti-submarine
torpedoes.

The vessel has the capacity to carry 10 torpedoes and 30 mines, it added.

Malaysia has ordered another similar submarine, named KD Tun Razak after the
country's second prime minister.

-- BERNAMA