Malaysia has gone and bought itself some new toys, namely two Scorpene submarines to be used to monitor the Malacca Strait.  The subs are French made by DCNS (Direction des Constructions Navales Services) and were ordered back in 2006.  They’ve been named KD Tunku Abdul Rahman and KD Tun Abdul Razak, after Malaysia’s first and second prime ministers.

The Scorpenes according to Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) chief Laksamana Datuk Abdul Aziz Jaafar will provide stealth capabilities against naval opponents.  A correspondent from Jane’s Defence Weekly claims that:

“To fight piracy, the submarine is more suitable as a surveillance vehicle, while other measures such as deploying surface attack vessels should be used if the number of enemy combatants on a seized ship is many.”

Interesting stuff!  In other news, DCNS has supplied a number of other states worldwide and in the Southeast Asia region with defence systems including:

- Singapore – RSS Supreme (73), the last of six Formidable-Class Frigates built as part of the New Frigate Programme

- Thailand – two harpoon-and-grid landing systems and two Samahé traversing systems to be delivered from early 2009

See these links for the complete info I’ve poached mentioned above.