The “Project Quessant Malaysia” exercise involved SMD Quessant and 156 Prime Minister Class trainee crew (ended on 11 July 2009). The training mission for KD Tunku Abdul Rahman sailed from the Direction des Construction Navales Service (DCNS) Cherbourg shipyard, Toulon bound for Malaysia.

All Prime Minister Class crews are fully trained by the staff of a private French firm, NAVFCO; part of the Groupe DCI (Defense Consell International) which consists of the former French Navy.

The trainee crews are required to spend 9,000 hours of training (4 years) underwater with the SMD Quessant submarine. Divided into 3 phases of training, namely lecture training, simulation (actor) and sea submarine training under the management and direction of the SMD Quessant Commander, Captian Commander Benoit Lemire.

The SMD Quessant refit project officially began on 30 October 2003 before being fully completed on 20 October 2005 and was chartered by Malaysia to begin a training mission at sea to train all Prime Minister Class crews from 21 November 2005 until completion on Wednesday, 9 July 2009.

NAVFCO began training 156 Prime Minister Class trainee crews at the NAVFCO Submarine School at the Centre d'Instruction Naval (CIN) Brest, France starting in 2003.