Laksamana-class corvette

The Laksamana class is a group of four small missile corvettes of the Royal Malaysian Navy, built in Italy on a Fincantieri design known as the Type 550. The ships were first ordered by the Iraqi Navy as the Assad class, but United Nations sanctions after the invasion of Kuwait stopped their delivery. In October 1995 the Malaysian Ministry of Finance signed a contract with Fincantieri for two of them, and two more were ordered in February 1997, with the design modified and the ships refitted to Malaysian needs. The first pair, Laksamana Hang Nadim and Laksamana Tun Abdul Jamil, were commissioned in July 1997 and the second pair in July 1999. Each is named for a Malay warrior who held the title Laksamana. Four MTU diesel engines give a sustained 14.8 megawatts on four shafts and a dash speed of 36 knots, and the main armament is the Otomat Mark 2 anti-ship missile, the Albatros air defence system and a 76 millimetre gun. Two of the four ships were decommissioned on 5 June 2025.