Nakhoda Ragam Corvettes Being Prepared for Indonesian Navy

NR Class (kenyot10)

The end of January saw the 19-tonne Oto Melara 76mm gun turrets being refitted to the Nakhoda Ragam class corvettes which have been stored in Barrow since 2007 as part of the preparations for their transfer to the Indonesian Navy.

The three corvettes KDB 'Nakhoda Ragam', KDB 'Bendhara Sakam' and KDB 'Jerambak' have been acquired by the Indonesian government from Brunei for the Indonesian Navy.

Brunei originally ordered the vessels in 1995, but refused to take delivery of the vessels in 2002, the contractual dispute was settled by arbitration in 2007 in favor of BAE systems and three ships where handed over to Brunei.

The three vessels where then moved to Barrow, where they have been maintained by James Fisher Marine Services, under contract to the German Lürssen shipyard, who had been contracted by Brunei, to build three Darussalam class OPV and four Ijtihad class corvettes for the Brunei Navy as a replacement for the non-delivered Nakhoda Ragam class corvettes.

It is understood that Indonesia has paid just a fifth of the original £600m value of the three vessels which are now expected to become operational with the Indonesian Navy during 2014.

  ♞ Demotix