Second Scorpene submarine to arrive in early June

KOTA KINABALU: The country’s second Scorpene submarine KD Tun Abdul Razak is scheduled to arrive at the Sepanggar submarine base in early June.

The navy’s Submarine Commander First Admiral Mohammad Rosland Omar, said the manufacturer, Navatia, was currently putting the submarine through its second phase of trials in waters off Cartanega in Spain.

The tests are expected to be completed by March and the submarine will take about two months to make the journey to its home base.

“Come early June, we will have our two submarines here,” he told reporters at the Quality Day event at the Sepanggar Bay naval base here yesterday.

KD Tun Abdul Razak is the navy’s second submarine, the first being the KD Tunku Abdul Rahman, which arrived at its home base on Sept 17 last year.

Rosland said more personnel would be trained to man the two submarines to meet the navy’s future needs.

Region II Commander for Sabah and Sarawak First Admiral Anuwi Hassan said operations and programmes for the two submarines for the next two years had already been put in place.