LTAT CEO Ahmad Nazim Abdul Rahman said the “bulk order” meant for six vessels was cheaper compared to buying such equipment individually.

He also said a huge portion of the RM9 billion contract went to the “basic design and detailed design” carried out by the Naval Group, a major player in the French naval sector.

“(A total of) RM9 billion for six ships under the original contract means the price of one ship is approximately RM1.5 billion,” he said in a Facebook post yesterday.\

Nazim pointed out that Egypt and the UAE spent nearly RM1.9 billion for one of their LCS ships while the US built their LCS for RM2.4 billion each as it was more advanced.

He also confirmed that the construction of the vessels was under way at the Lumut shipyard.

He said he was directly involved in drafting the LCS project recovery plan with the defence ministry and navy.

“These ships are being built concurrently.”

On Monday, defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the LCS built by BNS will be completed in “at least a year or two”.

The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last week revealed that not a single ship had been completed although Putrajaya had spent RM6 billion on the project, which was given to Boustead Naval Shipyard (BNS) through direct negotiations.

LTAT has a 61% stake in BNS.

The PAC said BNS had ignored the navy’s views on the LCS project.

Nazim also said the LCS project had created job opportunities for almost 3,000 engineers and 400 local vendors in various fields.

He said some of the money meant for the ships was used to pay off debt incurred by a previous company which Boustead Holdings and BNS had to cover after taking over the project.

Nazim said the Cabinet decided to move forward with the project in April after considering three options.

“One of the options was BNS’ restructuring plan, which took eight months of work at various levels of the government,” he said.