Malaysia Picks Roketsan’s ATMACA Over Norway’s NSM for Its Littoral Combat Ships
Malaysia’s Defence Minister, Dato’ Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, said on 12 November that Roketsan’s ATMACA anti-ship missile is now the preferred replacement for Kongsberg’s Naval Strike Missile (NSM) aboard the Royal Malaysian Navy’s five Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), built at Lumut Naval Shipyard. Kuala Lumpur will still negotiate with Türkiye before the purchase is finalised.
According to the minister, ATMACA beat competing French and Italian missiles on cost and delivery schedule, and could arrive ahead of the originally planned timeline. The contract’s financial value has not been disclosed.
A key factor behind the choice is that Malaysia has already ordered 24 ATMACA missiles for its Littoral Mission Ship (LMS) Batch 2 programme, a move Khaled said reduces the cost of standardising on the Turkish missile across both ship classes.
The missile gap opened in March, when Norway suspended NSM’s export licence. Malaysia is now preparing a dispute-resolution committee with Norway after initial talks failed to resolve the standoff. The country’s Auditor General flagged the NSM dispute as a major risk to the LCS programme, pushing back the delivery of the lead ship, Maharaja Lela, from December 2026 to April 2027.
Integration questions remain open. Khaled said ATMACA is reportedly compatible with the ships’ Naval Group-built SETIS combat management system, but two unnamed sources told Naval News that key technical details are still unresolved. Tayfun Ozberk, a former Turkish Navy officer and Naval News contributor, said integrating ATMACA with SETIS would require cooperation from France’s Naval Group and its defence procurement agency, DGA. A simpler fallback would be a standalone firing console inside the Combat Information Centre.
Lumut Naval Shipyard said removing the NSM launchers already installed on the ships, in order to preserve an unbroken chain of custody under export-control rules, has also added to the delay. As of 25 September, overall construction of the LCS fleet stood at 80.72 percent complete, 9.19 percentage points behind schedule.
Other contracts — covering VL-MICA air-defence missiles, 57mm Bofors ammunition and an integrated decoy-launching system — are likewise still unfinalised. The lead ship, Maharaja Lela, is undergoing sea trials and has already completed live-fire tests with its 57mm Bofors gun.
For now, the decision is a stated preference rather than a signed contract, and full integration of ATMACA with the SETIS combat system has not been confirmed.
Sources:
Naval News, “Malaysia Selects Roketsan’s ATMACA to Replace NSM on Littoral Combat Ships”, 15 November 2026 — https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2026/11/malaysia-selects-roketsans-atmaca-to-replace-nsm-on-littoral-combat-ships/ (primary source for this report).
New Straits Times, reporting on Defence Minister Khaled Nordin’s 12 November statement, as relayed by Naval News (used to corroborate the minister’s remarks).
