KUALA LUMPUR: The replacement of the Naval Strike Missile (NSM) system of Malaysia is expected to take between two and three years, says Armed Forces chief Jeneral Tan Sri Malek Razak Sulaiman.
He said the timeline is due to the requirement for a fresh procurement process and remains subject to approval for government funding.
"The earliest it can be completed is in about two to three years because it is a new process. We have to review everything again and it also depends on the budget," he told reporters on Tuesday (July 7).
He was speaking after the launch of the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition 2027 (LIMA'27).
Malek Razak said the Defence Ministry and the Armed Forces had shortlisted four countries following operational and technical evaluations. The shortlisted nations are France, Turkiye, Italy and South Korea.
Earlier, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the technical evaluation to select a replacement surface-to-surface missile system for the Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) programme is expected to be completed by the end of this month.
The evaluation is being conducted by the Defence Ministry and the navy.
He said the navy and the ministry were evaluating several surface-to-surface missile systems from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in potential supplier countries to replace the NSM system.
This comes after Norway revoked its export licence.
Mohamed Khaled said the proposals submitted by the companies involved would be comprehensively assessed based on the operational requirements of the navy.
