He said total payments made were based on the signed contract, which stipulates payments are not made according to the progress of each ship.

“Instead, payments are made according to the overall progress of the LCS project, as recommended by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the investigation committee on public governance, procurement and finance.

“In line with this, the government has paid RM7.15 billion, or 63.7%, compared to the original payment plan of 68.4%, based on the current progress of the procurement of all five LCS,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat.

He was replying to a question from Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz (PN-Tanah Merah).

Khaled said the third LCS was 56.5% complete, with the fourth and fifth ships at 51.1% and 42.3% completion, respectively.

He was confident that the five ships could be delivered to the navy within the planned timeline, starting from August 2026.

To a supplementary question from Ikmal about acquiring the recently decommissioned HMAS Anzac from Australia, Khaled said the ship was not suitable for temporary use.

“After reviewing the matter, the navy concluded that the ship in question is not suitable. This is based on issues such as equipment commonality and the acquisition cost, which will not be beneficial to the government, especially if we proceed with the procurement… which is expected to take until 2027 (to complete).

“By which time we will already have been supplied with the first and second LCS ships,” he said.

Khaled said the government had recently procured three littoral mission ships from Turkey, which were expected to be completed by the end of 2027.