SHAH ALAM: 2021 Budget. The Defence Ministry got an allocation of RM15.86 billion, an increase of some RM200 million compared to last year’s one in the just announced 2021 budget. The Home Ministry for the second year running was allocated around RM1 billion more with a RM16.852 billion allocation.
The combined allocation for both the defence and internal securiy allocations are RM32.7 billion or 10.1 per cent from the RM322.5 billion 2021 budget, the highest since Merdeka.
Army and GOF joint patrol in ESSCOM AOR. Note the GK-M1 weapon carriers. The left one is fitted with a 12.7mm machine gun while the other is fitted with an automatic grenade launcher.
Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz in his budget speech did not touch too much on the security sub-sector apart from announcing the allocation for both though he did rounded up the figures to the nearest number (Defence RM16 billion and Home RM18 billion, for the actual figures see above).
This is of course better than the shadow play in the 2020 budget presentation.
A Super Lynx being put on board the A400M. RMAF
He also said to ensure the Armed Forces maintained a high readiness the maintenance allocation had been increased to RM2.3 billion this year compared to RM2 billion the previous year. This of course goes to the Operational Expenditure (OE) and Development Expenditure (DE) budget. I guess we have to wait for the question and answer sessions to get a better explanation on this issue.
KD Lekiu CMS crew conducting a live firing exercise off Langkawi under OP Benteng. KD Lekiu FB
OE and DE
Despite the increase in the overall allocation, the OE budget of RM11.3 billion for Defence is a slight decrease from last year one of RM12.496 billion. The DE budget saw an increase of almost RM2 billion – RM4.505 billion compared to last year figure of RM3.083 billion. This is likely the figure quoted by the Finance Minister in his speech.
Inside the cabin of a PDRM Baracuda armoured car. PDRM
The detailed DE allocation for the Army is RM1.122 billion, most of it for equipment RM1.02 billion while the rest is for construction. The RMN is getting RM1.193 billion, the majority of it for equipment, RM1.148 billion, the rest for construction and RMAF is getting RM1.49 billion, again the bulk is for equipment, RM1.478 billion.
MMEA Leonardo AW139 landing onboard a ship. APMM
Internal Security
As for the Home Ministry, the OE is RM13.693 billion down from last year’s figure of RM13.839 billion. The DE for the ministry for 2021 is higher at RM3.158 billion compared to RM3.088 billion, last year.
A sailor from KD Pahang firing the 30mm Breda Mauser gun located on top of the helicopter hangar aft. The gun can be fired manually from the mount or remotely from the combat information centre.
The police is getting the bulk of the DE allocation for the ministry, totalling some RM1.6 billion. The allocation include funds for the Air Wing (RM10 million) and aircraft (RM3.84 million)
PDRM Super King Air 350 on finals at Subang airport. The aircraft ids fitted an unknown type of ISR equipment. Note the radome under the belly.
APMM meanwhile is getting RM378 million most of it is likely to pay for the ships its getting or has gotten.
To be updated.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (88)
More DE for home ministry means more allocation to buy new things for Police and MMEA. Which is good.
What i am afraid is that the operating expenditure for MMEA is not increased, when currently they are operating on a shoestring budget.
The DE for defence ministry is a bit more than USD1 billion. Which is affordable to continue for each year for the whole of RMK12 2021-2025. If the defence ministry can get USD5 billion in DE for RMK12, and RMK13 virtually all of my plans that i wrote here before can be executed.
AF got the highest DE allocation this time, followed by Navy and Army. Hopefully it will translate to UAS project and radar replacement. I dont think LCA is ready for next year.
Good enough for the time being.
on MMEA DE budget
it is actually lower than last year
2020 RM414 million
2021 RM378 million
Not a good sign.
BTW Overall there is not a significant increase from 2020. The 2020 allocation for security sector is RM32.5 billion from a total expenditure of RM297 billion. Percentage wise 2021 security sector budget is actually lower than 2020.
On the defence ministry DE. Interestingly TUDM is getting the highest percentage of the DE budget for 2020. The 2021 TUDM DE budget is like 500% increase compared to 2020 (RM383 million vs RM1.49 billion). In the past few years it was TLDM that gets the most budget. Still the budget for TLDM for 2021 is actually bigger than for 2020.
Having ‘x’ amount to spend is one thing; us putting the cash to good use getting what suits our requirements rather than what politics dictate we should buy is a very different thing. That’s what I’m worried about.
How the government in the coming months handles the MPA and UAS programme will be indicative of how it intends to handle things or whether it will simply continue with past practices.
" How the government in the coming months handles the MPA and UAS programme will be indicative of how it intends to handle things or whether it will simply continue with past practices "
I am hoping that common sense prevails, and TUDM goes for a homogeneous fleet of CN-235MPAs. I am also hoping that the cost effective and proven Bayraktar TB2 will be the UAV choosen.
Early next year the RMK12 plan will be unveiled, and we can quickly decide on our LCA LIFT programme too.
Also surely there is some budget in there to get half a dozen EC225LP used helicopters to add to the EC725 fleet.
Does Bayraktar participate in RMAF tendering? I thought only Anka as the only Turkey participant?
Reply
I have no idea, if they took part in the briefing and they feel they can win the tender they could take part.
off topic
The Philippines has confirmed that they are getting Mil Mi-17 for their airforce heavyilift helicopter requirement. The total cost is said to be around USD235 million. In total Philippines will buy 16 Mi-17, with the russian government throwing in one Mi-17 VIP helicopter for free (for a total of 17 helicopters)
This will add to the 16 S-70i blackhawk already ordered by Philippines airforce for USD240 million. Ironically Mi-17 sling load capacity is around the same as the blackhawk, around 4 tons, but Mi-17 has better hot and high performance, with bigger cabin and rear ramp for carrying more soldiers. The heavylift helicopter project was supposed to get chinook sized helicopters.
So in the near future Philippines airforce will have 33 brand new helicopters in the shape of S-70i blackhawks and Mi-17 hip helicopters for a total spend of around USD480 million.
on the airforce 2021 Development Expenditure budget
RM1.49 billion is around USD354.7 million.
https://www.malaysiandefence.com/options-for-rmaf-cap-55/
IMO more than enough to award the UAV project. The intent is just for 3 units, but we can afford 12, looking at Ukraine buy of 12 Bayraktar TB2 for USD69 million.
I calculated that it would cost around USD40 million + trade in of our current beechcrafts to PTDI to have another 3 more CN-235 converted into MPAs plus adding more systems like ESM, etc for all 6 CN-235s.
That is still just 30% of the allocated budget. The rest we can really use for downpayment of our LCA/LIFT project, and hopefully it would be around 50 airframes in all to afford 2 operational and 1 LIFT/OCU squadrons.
What we can do is to have a big government to government contract with south korea, with the koreans agreeing to have 100% offset of the contract amount to invest in malaysian industries. Korean electronic companies need to get out of china, and malaysian companies such as silterra needs work. An example of how defence can actually spur civilian economy if we put our thoughts on it.
Mi-17 have hot and high capability? If so why did China ditched their Mi-17s in favor of S-70 (and its domestic derivative) for use in Tibet? It's far easier to get spares for Mi-17 compared to S-70 especially after the tiannamen square incident and yet they are still being use in that part of China until Z20 came out
Even in Nepal and india both countries would rather use lighter helicopters (cheetak, Ecureuil) for operation near the himalayas