Malaysia's first submarine, the KD Tunku Abdul Rahman made its debut in an integrated Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) exercise in the South China Sea, which ended today.

NONE The exercise among others involved 10 RMN warships besides Super Lynx and Fennec helicopters, RMN said in a statement in Kota Kinabalu.

“Now that we have our own submarines, RMN no longer needs to depend on the submarines of other navies to conduct sub-hunting manoeuvres.

“Also involved in the exercise were naval commandos, divers, an air defence team, two Hawk fighters, a Beechcraft maritime aircraft and Nuri helicopters from the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF). Overall it involved over 1,000 RMN and RMAF personnel,” RMN said in the statement.

RMN added that such integrated exercises were normally conducted three times a year but had been reduced to just once this year to save costs.

- Bernama