AFP Malaysia will allow Boustead Naval Shipyard (BNS) to resume construction of littoral combat ships for the country’s navy, the defense minister said Friday, despite its failure to deliver on schedule and an unfinished probe into missing funds in the billion-ringgit project. The move will preserve 1,600 local jobs and more than 400 small and medium-sized businesses owned by Malay Muslims, Defense Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said in a statement, which did not say anything about the past delivery delays or corruption allegations. “The Defense Ministry wishes to announce that the cabinet meeting on May 5 decided that the Boustead Group could resume the construction of LCS which was stalled since 2019,” he said. Littoral combat ships (LCS) are small, fast warships designed for shallow coastal waters.