Royal Brunei Navy sails forward with new vessels

The Royal Brunei Navy's new 'Itjihad' class patrol boat seen here during one of her first sea-trials in Germany.


HELLO MISTERS AND LADYS


The Royal Brunei Navy (RBN) looks set to sail on into the future onboard new patrol vessels soon with the acquisition of several German-made 'Itjihad' class patrol boats.
After the decade-long legal wrangling over Brunei's refusal to accept the three completed offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) that were built by British Aerospace (BAe), the Ministry of Defence (MinDef) then turned to German ship manufacturer, Lurssen Werft, to build several new naval platforms for the RBN with which it could still effectively maintain a credible deterrence and perform its other roles and responsibilities.

In an interview with Dr Ezio Bonsignore, Managing Editor of Military Technology Magazine, which is also based in Munich, Germany, the Bulletin posed the question to ascertain whether the capabilities of these new patrol boats are as effective compared to the OPVs for the RBN's intended roles and missions.

Dr Bonsignore said: "The Itjihads are significantly less sophisticated and complex to operate than the previous OPVs/corvettes.

"This is the reason why the RBN ordered them. The RBN did put the OPVs/corvettes on sale because it realised that it did not have sufficient trained personnel to operate them."

The OPVs were significantly bigger in every aspect compared to the Itjihads.

From displacement to crew complement, as well as the level of sophistication of its electronics and weapons system, the three completed OPVs, which had already been dubbed the Kapal Diraja Brunei (KDB) Nakhoda Ragam, KDB Bendahara Sakam and KDB Jerambak certainly dwarf the Itjihads in terms of capabilities, but it was the consideration of capacity that ultimately made MinDef rethink its decision.

Sources at MinDef, meanwhile, declined to comment.

The Bulletin made further queries to the Military Technology Magazine about how they found out about RBN's latest acquisition in its modernisation programme.

"We picked up the news about the Itjihad being at her sea trials from a local German newspaper, and from here I followed the story," acknowledged the managing editor.

During the second Brunei Darussalam International Defence Expo last August 12-15, the Military Technology Magazine published a special report in Issue 8, 2009, Volume XXXIII, entitled 'Defence in Brunei: The RBAF's Development Plan'.

The magazine stated: "The Itjihad class is the first vessel in a class of three 40-metre patrol boats that was built by Lurssen Werft for the Royal Brunei Navy."

The particular issue of Military Technology Magazine was distributed during the second Bridex at its new venue in Jerudong, which did not receive any negative feedback from MinDef nor the RBN.

On May 20, Jane's Defence News, another renowned military publication also published a report, entitled 'Mystery patrol craft starts trials out of Lurssen Werft yard', in which it stated: "The first of a new class of patrol craft believed to be destined for the RBN has commenced sea trials from German shipbuilder Lurssen Werft's Bremen yard.

Named Itjihad and bearing the pennant number 17, its construction has remained a closely guarded secret."

It also acknowledged that Lurssen continues to refuse to comment on Itjihad.

"However, information transmitted by the vessel's automatic identification system identifies the craft as being under the Brunei flag."

According to other sources, the commanding officer of the first completed Lurssen-built patrol boat had left for Germany in early October, to train alongside the crew that was already there earlier this year to train on the vessel.

They are also expected to sail the patrol boat back to Brunei sometime next year.

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