The Submarine Race in the Malaccan Strait

[mota bhai 2,675]

Linking the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean, the Malacca Strait is by far the shortest maritime route connecting Persian Gulf energy producers to their largest consumers in countries like China, Japan, and South Korea.

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Northeast Asia’s dependence on oil coming through the strait is remarkable. Japan relies on the Malaccan Strait for about 90 percent of its oil imports. As recently as 2010, China relied on the strait for some 80 percent of its imported oil.

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Three nations—Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia— sit atop the Malaccan Strait, which is just 1.7 miles (2.7 km) wide at its narrowest point. While foreign navies like the United States have traditionally operated in the area, and China’s navy has increasingly taken a strong interest in doing so, the naval forces of these littoral states should not be overlooked.

Indeed, taking stock of their strategic location, all three countries have acquired submarine forces, with Indonesia in particular possessing considerable subsurface ambitions for the future.

The Republic of Singapore’s Navy (RSN) has one of the most formidable submarine forces in the region, commissioning its sixth vessel in May. All six of the vessels were purchased from Sweden in two different batches.

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Singapore’s traditional rival, Malaysia, has an enormous coastline and is also located along the strategic Strait of Malacca. These factors led the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) to determine in 2002 that it would need a small submarine force to patrol its waters.

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Towards that end, Malaysia turned to France to service its underwater needs, agreeing to purchase two Scorpene-class submarines (the same kind India is now buying from France) and a refitted French submarine for training purchases.

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Malaysia’s decision to acquire the Scorpene-class submarines has heightened Indonesia’s insecurity, causing it to reexamine its own submarine fleet.

As the world’s largest archipelagic country, Indonesia has coastlines stretching 108,000 km and claims an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of around 5.8 million square km. It also sits along at least three major maritime shipping lanes, the Malacca, Sunda and Lombok Straits.

Not surprisingly, then, Indonesia’s Navy, Tentara Nasional Indonesia-Angkatan Laut (TNI–AL), has long seen it fit to operate an underwater force. Since the early 1980s, TNI-AL has operated two submarines, the KRI Cakra and KRI Nenggala, which are U-209/1300 submarines acquired from Germany.

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More importantly, Indonesia has signaled it has ambitious plans to expand its underwater fleet, with naval officials at times suggesting the country would like to ultimately acquire between 14 and 18 submarines.

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After entertaining bids from Russian, Turkish and French companies, among others, in December 2011 Indonesia ultimately decided to purchase 3 new submarines from South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering.

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Indonesia also recently completed a new military base on Palu Bay, which will serve as the country’s submarine base.

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“The primary reasons for selecting Palu have surely got to do with geography. It's located first of all astride the Strait of Makassar and the Palu Bay is a narrow, deep inlet (reportedly 400m) which provides maximum security for the submarine force in terms of concealment and defense against attacks. Besides its sitting astride the strategic waterway, Palu offers direct access northwards into the Sulawesi Sea, where Indonesia still has outstanding dispute with Malaysia over the Ambalat offshore oil block.”

http://thediplomat.com/flashpoints-blog/2013/07/16/the-submarine-race-in-the-malaccan-strait/