1934–1988: a navy without aircraft

The Royal Malaysian Navy traces its roots to the Straits Settlements Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, formed in Singapore on 27 April 1934, but for more than half a century it had no aircraft of its own. Through the Emergency, Konfrontasi and the second communist insurgency, maritime flying was the air force’s business. The navy only began to move its headquarters from Woodlands in Singapore to the new base at Lumut, in Perak, on 9 September 1984, and its air arm followed that move. Wikipedia’s base article places the RMN Naval Air headquarters at Lumut and gives the air unit there the official name KD Rajawali. No official page describing the arm could be reached for this dataset: the navy’s website did not respond, and the name “Fleet Air Arm” used for this page is not confirmed in the sources reached.

1986–2000s: six second-hand Wasps

The arm began with six used Westland Wasp helicopters bought from the Royal Navy in May 1986, according to Wikipedia. They entered service on 8 April 1988 — late for a type the Royal Navy had flown since the 1960s — with serials in the M499 range; one of them, M499-07, had served the Royal Navy as XT426 from 1965. It did not last: Wikipedia says it was phased out about ten years later and replaced by the Fennec, although the Fennec did not arrive until 2004, so the dates leave a gap that the sources reached do not explain. Two Wasps survive in museums at Pekan and Malacca.

2003–2004: Super Lynx and Fennec

The real air arm dates from 2003–2004. Six Westland Super Lynx Mk 100s for 501 Squadron were delivered from 3 March 2003 to June 2004, for the navy’s frigates, and six Eurocopter AS555SN Fennecs (later renamed H125M) for 502 Squadron from 30 March 2004. Naval News reported in 2019 that the Lynx had flown more than 10,210 hours and made 4,372 deck landings on moving ships without a fatal accident, and that the Fennecs had flown 19,000 hours without an accident, the best record of any Malaysian agency. The Lynx carried the anti-ship and anti-submarine load; the Fennec did training, surveillance, rescue, fire support and special forces work. It was a sensible, balanced buy — and, two decades on, an old one.

Gulf of Aden, the Bunga Laurel and Sea Skua

The helicopters went to war in a small way off Somalia. The navy has patrolled the Gulf of Aden against piracy since 2009 under Operation Fajar, and in January 2011 it foiled the hijacking of the Malaysian chemical tanker Bunga Laurel; Wikipedia says a Fennec was used to pin down the pirate mothership while navy commandos boarded the tanker, and Naval News lists the Lynx and Fennec as having supported the operation with fire. Naval News also credits them with the MV Abul Kalam Azad anti-piracy operation and the interception of MV Nautica Johor Bahru in the South China Sea. In July 2019, in Exercise Taming Sari, a Super Lynx fired two Sea Skua missiles in the South China Sea; the Minister of Defence said it showed “the RMN fleet’s capability to fulfill requirements when operating in the South China Sea”.

2020–2024: drones, AW139s and the Lumut collision

Drones came from the United States. Under the Maritime Security Initiative the first six Insitu ScanEagles were delivered on 7 May 2020, and on 4 March 2021 the navy launched its first unmanned squadron, 601 Squadron, at Kota Kinabalu Air Station in Sabah. Naval News reported 12 for the navy, worth USD 19.3 million; Wikipedia says 18. In September 2020 Malaysia signed for three AW139 maritime operations helicopters, which became 503 Squadron. On 23 April 2024, during a rehearsal for the navy’s 90th anniversary at Lumut, AW139 M503-3 and Fennec M502-6 collided over the base and all ten people aboard were killed; investigators found on 30 May 2024, CNA reported according to Wikipedia, that one helicopter had flown at the wrong altitude and clipped the other’s rotor.

2024–2026: a fleet waiting for its replacements

The fleet that survives is small and ageing. In 2023 the then Chief of Navy, Admiral Rahman Ayob, disclosed that two of the six Super Lynx were in extended storage for lack of maintenance money, and the navy wants four new anti-submarine helicopters between 2026 and 2030; Korea Aerospace Industries has offered its Marineon, and Leonardo has promoted the AW159 Wildcat in Malaysia since 2016. Under a 15-year lease-to-own contract announced in November 2024, two of 28 Leonardo helicopters are for the navy; their type and delivery date were not confirmed in the sources reached. What the arm lacks is plain: the replacement anti-submarine helicopters have not been ordered, and the collision left 502 and 503 Squadrons each an aircraft short.

Current fleet and orders

AgustaWestland, Eurocopter, Insitu, Leonardo, Westland