The Kasturi-class corvettes are two ships of the Royal Malaysian Navy, KD Kasturi and KD Lekir. They were acquired in the mid-1980s. The two ships constitute the Royal Malaysian Navy’s 22nd Corvette Squadron, their homeport being Lumut. After about 25 years of service, they underwent an extensive modernisation known as Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) starting in 2009, enabling them to be employed for another 10 to 15 years. They have since been returned to active duty.

Quick facts Class overview, General characteristics …

KD Lekir (F26) with USS Bunker Hill
Class overview
Name	Kasturi class
Builders	Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft
Operators	Royal Malaysian Navy
Preceded by	Laksamana class
Completed	2
Active	2
General characteristics
Type	FS 1500 corvette
Displacement	1850 tons full load
Length	98 m (322 ft)
Beam	11.5 m (38 ft)
Draft	3.5 m (11 ft)
Propulsion	4 × MTU 20V 1163 TB92 diesels 23,460 bhp (17,490 kW) 2 shafts
Speed	28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph)
Range	5,000 nmi (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement	124
Sensors & processing systems	TACTICOS Combat Management System Thales Link Y Mk 2.5 DA-08 search radar WM-22 fire control radar DSQS-24C sonar
Electronic warfare & decoys	DR3000S ESM suite Scimitar jammers SKWS decoys
Armament	Guns: 1 × Bofors 57 mm gun 2 × MSI DS30B 30 mm cannon Anti-air: MANPAD Anti-ship: 8 × Exocet MM40 Block 2 Anti-submarine: 2 × triple Eurotorp B515 with A244-S ASW torpedoes
Aircraft carried	1 x Super Lynx 300
Aviation facilities	Helicopter landing platform

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The two ships of the class are named after Hang Kasturi and Hang Lekir, two heroic figures from the Malay 15th-century epic narrative Hikayat Hang Tuah. They share this characteristic with the two Lekiu-class frigates, KD Lekiu and KD Jebat, as well as the old frigate-turned-training ship KD Hang Tuah, all of which are named after figures from the epic as well.

The class was ordered in February 1981 and built by the German Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) shipyard. Both ships were simultaneously launched on 14 May 1983 and commissioned on 15 August 1984. Two more were planned but were never ordered.^[1] The Kasturi class is based on HDW’s FS 1500 design.^[1] The two ships constitute the Royal Malaysian Navy’s 22nd Corvette Squadron. Their homeport is Lumut at the west coast of the Malayan Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca and the Indian Ocean.^[2]

In August 2009, a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) was awarded to Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation to overhaul the aging corvettes with work to be carried out locally at the Boustead Naval Shipyard in Lumut.^[6] By this time, KD Kasturi had reportedly not been operational since 2007 and it would eventually take almost seven years for her to resume operational status in early 2014.^[3] KD Lekir remained in active duty until the SLEP work on her began in October 2011 and was completed in November 2014.^[7] The SLEP is estimated to have extended the corvettes’ service life by around 15 years.^[3]

Despite the work being incomplete on KD Lekir at that time, both ships participated in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March 2014.^[8]

• KD Lekir resupplied by Royal Australian Navy HMAS Supply.
• KD Lekir and USS Carl Vinson.
• KD Kasturi during SEACAT 2006.
• KD Lekir underway in the Strait of Malacca.
• KD Lekir at sea in 2009.
• KD Lekir and the Lekiu-class frigate, KD Jebat tied up at Stokes Hill Wharf in July 2005.
• KD Lekir during the CARAT 2008 exercise.

• Almirante Padilla-class – A Colombian ship class also based on the FS 1500 design.
• List of naval ship classes in service