Question 1: What will be the immediate action required to achieve balance of power?
Answer: We are short of mid-sized ships, i.e. frigates and corvettes to cover our seas. Singapore has a total of 12 vessels, Philippine has 13 vessels, Indonesia has 28 vessels while Thailand has 17 vessels with 1 aircraft carrier. Ideally we need at least 4 more frigates and corvettes.
Question 2: Is Malaysia in need of submarines?
Answer: Perhaps the immediate threat will be from our nearest neighbours - Singapore with 6 submarines and Indonesia with 2 submarines. Vietnam will take delivery of 2 submarines from DPR in 2012 and 6 more submarines from Russia from 2014-2019. There are two options for anti submarine warfare - (1) deploy attack submarines or (2) strengthen anti submarine warfare (ASW) with helicopter, anti submarine destroyer or sub chasers.
Question 3: What other things are we short of, compared to our neighbours?
Answer: In terms of amphibious vehicle and rapid troops deployment, we are short of LCM, LST and the like.
Indonesia seems to be a fan of old doctrine of engagement via shore landings with 35 ships. Vietnam has 20, Thailand has 14 ships, while Singapore has 4. We have lost the only LST due to fire*.
Note*: Our last LST was KD Sri Inderapura that was destroyed by fire on 8 Oct 2009 while anchored in the Lumut Naval Base. KD Sri Inderapura was officially decommissioned from Royal Malaysian Navy on 21 Jan 2010.
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