Türkiye’s defence shipbuilding sector has hit another milestone in its corvette programme for the Royal Malaysian Navy. TUNKU OSMAN JEWA, the last of three corvettes being built under STM’s Littoral Mission Ship (LMS) Batch-2 programme, was launched on 9 August 2026 at Istanbul Shipyard. With that, all three ships in the project have now hit the water — the first on 24 May, the second on 7 June, and the last on 9 August — putting the entire trio afloat in just four months.
Related: STM Launches Malaysia’s First Corvette
The ceremony was attended by the Sultan of Kedah, Al Aminul Karim Sultan Sallehuddin; the Sultanah of Kedah, Sultanah Maliha; Malaysia’s Chief of Defence Forces, General Datuk Haji Malek Razak bin Sulaiman; the Deputy Chief of the Royal Malaysian Navy, Rear Admiral Datuk Badarudin bin Taha; Türkiye’s Deputy Minister of National Defence, Mustafa Murat Şeker; SSB Deputy President and Chairman of STM’s Board, Prof. Dr. İhsan Kaya; and STM’s General Manager, Özgür Güleryüz.
Türkiye’s First Corvette Export, Sealed by a First G2G Deal
The project is being carried out under the first-ever government-to-government defence procurement agreement between Türkiye and Malaysia, and marks Türkiye’s first corvette export to the Asia-Pacific region. The programme has moved fast at every stage: steel-cutting took place on 4 December 2024, keel-laying followed on 8 April 2025, and in roughly 20 months all three hulls had been laid down and launched.
Speaking at the ceremony, STM General Manager Özgür Güleryüz said the company was proud to have launched three corvettes in just four months, and that the programme was now moving into outfitting, systems integration, and harbour and sea acceptance trials, with delivery of all three ships to the Royal Malaysian Navy targeted for 2027.
Türkiye’s Deputy Minister of National Defence, Mustafa Murat Şeker, noted that the ships are being fitted with advanced technology from roughly 50 Turkish defence companies, led by ASELSAN, HAVELSAN and ROKETSAN. Malaysia’s Chief of Defence Forces, General Datuk Haji Malek Razak bin Sulaiman, added that the corvettes will help renew the navy’s ageing fleet and strengthen the Royal Malaysian Navy’s ability to safeguard the country’s waters.
A Name Drawn from Malaysian History
The third ship takes its name from General (Ret.) Tan Sri Tunku Osman Tunku Mohammad Jewa, Malaysia’s third Chief of the Armed Forces. The first two vessels in the class are named after Tunku Laksamana Abdul Jalil, known by the title “Prince-Admiral,” and Raja Laut, a notable figure in Selangor’s maritime and trading history.
Technical Profile
Built and delivered by STM as the project’s main contractor from design through completion, the LMS Batch-2 corvettes measure 99.56 metres in length and 14.42 metres in beam, with a draft of 3.94 metres and a displacement of around 2,500 tonnes. Powered by a CODAD propulsion system, they can reach speeds above 26 knots and cover more than 4,000 nautical miles at a 14-knot cruising speed. Each ship carries a crew of 111, comes equipped with a helicopter landing platform, and can sustain operations at sea for 14 days.
Weapons systems include one 76mm main gun, a 2×4 surface-to-surface missile (SSM) launcher, one 30mm secondary gun, a 2×2 surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, and two decoy launching systems (DLS). The sensor suite is built around ASELSAN’s 30mm MUHAFIZ remote-controlled stabilised gun system, the CENK 3D search radar, the ARES 2D surface radar, the Akrep fire-control radar, the Chaff decoy system, and an IFF (identification friend-or-foe) system, while ROKETSAN’s ATMACA anti-ship missile and HAVELSAN’s combat management system and 76mm gun fire-control system round out the ships’ key capabilities.
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Source: C4Defence-STM
