Malaysia picks Turkey's Atmaca missile for its littoral combat ships after Norway blocks the NSM

Malaysia's defence ministry has chosen the Atmaca anti-ship missile, made by the Turkish company Roketsan, as its preferred replacement for the Norwegian Naval Strike Missile that was meant to arm the Royal Malaysian Navy's new Littoral Combat Ships. Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin announced the choice on Thursday 12 November at a press conference after the ministry's Innovation Day event in Kuala Lumpur.

Khaled said the ministry had compared proposals from Turkey, France and Italy before settling on Turkey because of its price, its delivery timeline and the upfront costs Malaysia would have to carry. Turkey is now the only country Malaysia will negotiate with over the replacement, and talks with the Turkish side are meant to settle the remaining details before the purchase is finalised.

The minister said Malaysia had been given assurances that the missile, which he put at a range of 240 kilometres, is compatible with the combat management system already fitted to the ships. He added that the ministry would look at compatibility and integration in more detail once negotiations begin.

Timing was a central part of his case. Khaled said a completely fresh purchase would take about 30 months to deliver. Because Malaysia has already ordered the same missile for its second batch of Littoral Mission Ships, he said some rounds could be supplied ahead of schedule, possibly by 2029, rather than leaving the combat ships without missiles until 2035.

He also argued that the switch would cost far less than a new programme. According to the New Straits Times, he said a brand-new missile purchase could cost between RM700 million and RM900 million, but that Malaysia would not need to spend that much, because extra spending would mainly cover launchers and integration with the ships' combat system. Free Malaysia Today noted that in October the minister had spoken of setting aside between RM700 million and more than RM1 billion for a new surface-to-surface missile system.

The original order dates from a 2018 contract with Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace to equip six Littoral Combat Ships. Norway later revoked the export licence, saying it would limit exports of its defence technology to allies and closest partners. Defence Security Asia reported that the contract, worth an estimated US$145 million, covered both missiles and launchers and that roughly 95 per cent of its value had been paid before the licence was withdrawn.

Khaled said Malaysia had accepted that it would not receive the Norwegian missiles despite having paid for them. A first round of talks aimed at an amicable settlement ended without agreement, so the ministry will now set up a dispute resolution committee with the company, and arbitration in Kuala Lumpur would follow if that fails. He warned that the process would take time and that there was no certainty the company would honour an arbitration ruling, so the government would not wait for it before buying an alternative.

Defence Security Asia said the lead ship of the Maharaja Lela class now has a revised delivery target of April 2027, while the three Littoral Mission Ship Batch 2 corvettes are being built in Turkey by STM for delivery by the end of 2027. The site noted that the Atmaca has not yet been publicly paired with the French-derived combat management system on the Littoral Combat Ships, and that Malaysia still has to decide how many missiles and launchers the ships will get and how the rounds will be shared with the corvettes. Those decisions will determine when the long-delayed ships can carry an anti-ship missile.