THURSDAY-6TH DECEMBER 2007-MALAYSIAN NAVY DOING WELL IN TRAINING FOR SCORPENE

Malaysian Navy doing well in training for Scorpene
LANGKAWI: The 150-odd crew and officers of the Royal Malaysian Navy undergoing a four-year training programme in France following the acquisition of the Scorpene class submarine last October are doing well and are in high spirits. The project director, Philippe Novelli, said the Malaysians were adapting well to the situation inside the submarine which was totally different from maneuvering a surface vessel. “You have to obtain what is around you by just looking at the radar. It is quite impossible to base your findings on bare eyes. “Psychologically you have also to be strong. As Malaysians, you have to be proud of them,” he said to reporters at the maritime segment of the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (Lima) 2007 exhibition here. He said that in a submarine, the main risk was flooding as well as the risk of hitting objects above the submarine during surfacing. He said one of the most crucial experiences the trainees had was during a storm in November 2005 in the Iroise Sea, Atlantic Ocean, which they managed to resist. Novelli said the training at the DCN Dockyard in Brest, about 500km from Cherbourg, France, was scheduled to be completed next year. Direction des Constructions Navales Services (DCNS) is the company building the Malaysian Scorpene submarines.