No Chinese boats and ships near South Luconia Shoals — Hishammuddin

KOTA TINGGI: The Royal Malaysian Navy ( RMN) has confirmed that no Chinese boats and ships have encroached into the Malaysian waters near the South Luconia Shoals ( Beting Patinggi Ali) in the South China Sea.

Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said this was verified by the RMN chief Datuk Seri Ahmad Kamarulzaman Ahmad Badaruddin yesterday.

“The RMN has been closely monitoring the situation, and as the person in charge, I’m truly relieved when he (Ahmad Kamarulzaman) confirmed that the national waters are safe,” he told reporters in response to the report that 100 Chinese boats detected to have encroached into Malaysian waters in the area.

Hishammuddin was met at the testing of the STARStreak guided missile at the Tanjung Logok Surface-to-Air Shooting Range here yesterday.

On STARStreak, Hishammuddin said the asset was purchased to replace the STARBust guided missile system which was obsolete and no longer produced.

STARStreak is a new low level very short range air defence asset procured by the Malaysian Armed Forces.

It is manufactured by a European-based company and has a speed of 1,000 metres per second with an effective range of up to seven kilometres.

The guided missile has several systems including the mobile RapidRanger and RapidRover weapon systems, Next Generation Lightweight Multiple Launcher and related communication system. — Bernama