Singapore navy launches second multi-role combat vessel nine months after first

SINGAPORE – The navy’s second multi-role combat vessel (MRCV), Valour, was launched on July 23, nine months after the first one was launched in October 2025.

Speaking during the launch at Benoi Shipyard, ST Engineering chief executive Vincent Chong said his teams had learnt from building the first vessel, Victory, and applied those lessons to improve the delivery of future vessels.

“We were able to build and launch MRCV Valour three months faster than MRCV Victory,” said Chong.

Victory and Valour are part of the navy’s new class of warships, designed to be highly configurable and integrated with a range of unmanned systems to carry out different mission types.

These new vessels will replace the existing Victory-class missile corvettes and will be delivered progressively from 2028 onwards. They will retain the names of the six missile corvettes: Victory, Valour, Vigilance, Valiant, Vigour and Vengeance.

At the launch, Coordinating Minister for National Security K. Shanmugam said the Ministry of Defence’s foresight in building up the navy over decades can be seen from the current international situation.

He added that maritime trade routes are under intense stress and referred to the situation in the Strait of Hormuz. The strait has been effectively closed because of the Iran war.

“Electricity prices have gone up, petrol prices have gone up. It’s a fundamental national priority for us to keep our maritime approaches secure, open and free. In fact, it’s a matter of survival,” said Shanmugam, who is also Minister for Home Affairs.

He said the warships can strengthen the navy’s ability to fulfil that mission, with an operational range of about 7,000 nautical miles and the ability to be deployed for longer periods of more than 21 days.

Steel was cut three months ago for the third and fourth vessels in the class, said Shanmugam.

He said all the warships have been or are being built in Singapore by ST Engineering, which has also built the vast majority of Singapore’s naval ships.

“We can design, we can build, we can sustain multiple advanced naval warships simultaneously,” said Shanmugam, adding that this reflects decades of investment in Singapore’s defence industry and engineering capabilities.

DSTA senior programme manager Foo Ce Yang, 41, said one of the biggest challenges when it came to bringing the project to fruition was integrating the different systems for the ship.

“When we install a mission module on board the vessel, we will need to check the physical dimensions, the power and the cooling footprint of the payload. We need to design the ship to accommodate those requirements. Power consumption is one of the key challenges when it comes to naval ship design,” said Foo.

He said the team of about 30 people learnt how to better manage the construction of Valour after their experience with the first.

Valour’s commanding officer will be Lieutenant-Colonel Timothy Low, 37, who has been with the navy for 19 years. He was previously the commanding officer of the RSS Vigilance, one of the missile corvettes due to be replaced by the new MRCVs.

Low said he was inspired to join the navy at 15, after his father, a naval medical officer, was called to help provide medical aid in the aftermath the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

He would also follow his father to the navy’s open house events, where he saw a strong family spirit among the servicemen.

“As a commanding officer, my focus is on creating or carrying forward a pioneering spirit in the crew, a crew that cares for one another, that will push operational boundaries together, and will write the next chapter of RSN’s (Republic of Singapore Navy) history,” said Low.