SHAH ALAM: The Army is transferring Gempita 8X8 armoured vehicles from 1 KAD – based in Kuantan, Pahang, to 4 KAD which is based in Kuching, Sarawak. The hand-over ceremony for the vehicles was conducted on August 16 in Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan, the Armour Directorate said on its social media page.
The vehicles will be shipped to Kuching in two batches starting from next month. The release below did not mention how many Gempita will be transferred to 4 KAD but an earlier one by the directorate stated that it will involve 26 vehicles. It is likely that 1 KAD will still have around 30 Gempita to meet its operational and training commitments.
1 KAD’s parent unit, 4th Mechanised Brigade, will not be affected by the transfer, as there are other mechanised units in the brigade. This include the 19th RAMD which is also equipped with Gempita. 19th RAMD was the first unit to be equipped with Gempita followed by 1 KAD. 4 KAD is under 1 Divisyen which comes under Army Eastern Field Command.
With the addition of 4 KAD, six units will be operating the Gempita. The current ones are 19 RAMD, 1 KAD, 2 KAD and 5 KAD though the numbers operated by each of the units is unknown.
Another unit which is operating Gempita is 12 Skn RAJD – the Armoured Engineer CBRNe unit based at the Terendak camp. 12 SKN is likely to be operating four CBRN variants of the Gempita with a single Gempita recovery vehicle or Scania wrecker for recovery operations.
The release on the transfer:
ACARA PERBARISAN SERAH TERIMA KENDERAAN PERISAI 8X8 GEMPITA
PORT DICKSON, 16 OGOS 2023: Pengarah Kor Armor Diraja, Brigedier Jeneral Mohd Fazly bin Mat Said telah menyaksikan acara Perbarisan Serah Terima Kenderaan Perisai (KP) 8X8 GEMPITA di antara Rejimen Pertama Kor Armor Diraja (1 KAD) dan Rejimen Ke-4 Kor Armor Diraja (4 KAD) di Padang Kawad Rejimen Kedua Kor Armor Diraja (2 KAD), Kem Sunggala, Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan.
Acara Penyerahan Replika KP 8X8 GEMPITA turut diadakan di antara Pegawai Memerintah 1 KAD, Leftenan Kolonel Zainal Azli bin Ismail dan Pegawai Memerintah 4 KAD, Leftenan Kolonel Ts. Dr. Wong Wai Loong.
Perbarisan yang diketuai oleh Mejar Izzudin bin Dato’ Abidin merupakan acara simbolik untuk lakaran sejarah apabila Tentera Darat telah bersetuju untuk membuat pemindahan KP 8X8 GEMPITA daripada 1 KAD kepada 4 KAD bagi menampung keperluan operasi, latihan dan kompitensi krew 4 KAD, 1 Divisyen dan Markas Pemerintahan Medan Timur Tentera Darat.
Perpindahan akan dilaksanakan dalam 2 peringkat menggunakan perkhidmatan kapal Tentera Laut Diraja Malaysia (TLDM) iaitu KD MAHAWANGSA mulai bulan September dan dijangka selesai pada pertengahan bulan Oktober 2023.
Turut hadir, Pegawai Memerintah 2 KAD, Leftenan Kolonel Maslan bin Ukkas, wakil Pegawai Staf Jabatan Arah Armor, wakil Markas Pemerintahan Medan Barat Tentera Darat dan wakil Markas Tentera Darat – Cawangan OPLAT.
It is likely that the Gempita operated by 5 KAD – pictured above on March 2020 – were the ones that was operated by 19 RAMD when they rotated to the ESSCOM AOR in 2018/2019. It is unclear whether the Gempita are still there though. 5 KAD remained an ad hoc unit as the commanding officer is still a major unlike other armoured regiments who are headed by a Lt Colonel (as can be ascertained by the release above).
The transfer of Gempita to 4 KAD meant that the only armoured regiment without Kenderaan Jenis A is 3 KAD. The unit retired their Condors at the same time as 4 KAD early this year though without much fanfare.
However, the need for new armoured vehicles for 3 KAD is not as acute as 4 KAD as the former’s camp is adjacent to that off the 19 RAMD in Sungai Petani, Kedah. That said the soldiers of 3 KAD may have other thoughts about this.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (35)
First of all congratulations to 4KAD on getting AV8 Gempita's!
The stated 26 units is just about enough for 2x Squadrons (12 each) plus 2 in HQ
All together for the cavalry regiments there are
78x IFV30
54x LCT30 (Ingwe)
24x SURV VINGTAQs
If divided by 5 regiments, each regiment would have
15-16x IFV30
10-11x LCT30
4x SURV VINGTAQs
basically each would have 30 Gempita's.
Then the army would need 150-200 armored 4x4s to fill up the regiments, to consist of
2x Gempita squadron
2x Armored 4x4 squadron
The 4x4 needs to be agile, if possible equipped with the same 30mm calibre of the Gempita, and to be equipped with ATGMs.
To be frank, current AV8 Gempita numbers are not ideal, even if we do get the armored 4x4 to shore up the numbers, a top up batch of additional AV8 Gempitas is still needed.
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As for 5 KAD using Gempita, I have been following their public page for quite sometime now, they are only equipped and operated with Lipanbara. The IFV25 Gempita, although stored in their camp, are owned and operated by 19RAMD. In your picture, you can see the crew of the gempitas standing beside their vehicles and just looking from afar what the 5KAD soldiers are doing, and not actually joining them.
As for 3 KAD, they were given Gempita's before, as proven by this picture below
https://pictr.com/images/2023/08/12/EoagJj.jpg
No idea why it was not followed through. Probably someone from 3 KAD could tell us more.
Yes, I know 3 KAD had a number of Gempita at their disposal but if you check their latest social media postings that they have no KJA at the moment.
"soldiers of 3 KAD may have other thoughts about this"
Despite having over 250 units, it seems there is not enough to go around and we need more Gempitas. An armoured unit without armour would certainly not sit well with their members. Since 5 KAD is an ad hoc unit, why not disband it and absorbed into 3 KAD?
" Since 5 KAD is an ad hoc unit, why not disband it and absorbed into 3 KAD? "
We need a cavalry regiment in both Sabah and Sarawak. Only 1 regiment for the whole of Pemerintahan Medan Timur is too few, considering Borneo will be the location of Indonesia's capital in less than a decade.
Question - Do the army have enough manpower if we bought 100+ 4×4 and maybe second batch of Gempita?
Yes, we do
Weird that MAF rather have nothing instead of maybe good second hand stuff. The indonesians and thais can make do quite regularly.
Within KAD context, what are the second hand stuff that are worthwhile to get?
This is 2023 stuff like Marder and KIFV is no longer that attractive and we're going to stuck with them for decades. Even second hand Leo 2A4 doesn't feel as attractive when the tiny red doar already got themselves Merk4 and 2A7
Brand new JLTV which goes for US$400K per vehicle which is RM1.8 million per vehicle. We can get this price if we go via the FMS and will get cheaper if the US pays for some of it under FMF. Better than buying second hand anything, really. However, this is unlikely as I was told that while the Army likes the JLTV, if its procured it will be under a direct commercial contract through a local agent. Of course then it will cost easily RM5 million per vehicle or more.
For 4x4 armored vehicle for the cavalry, the JLTV has the best protection, best mobility, best price of anything out there.
Previously we paid RM140 for just 20 units of Lipanbara, which is truck ladder chassis fitted with armor. That is RM7 million per vehicle. For the same RM140 amount, we could have gotten 78 JLTV.
IMO
buying something new - yes better buy brand new.
adding something already operational in the army (KIFV and ACV-15 for example) - getting used is okay.
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Another note,
Transferring Gempitas to Medan Timur is actually fulfilling one of the aims of Army4NextG plan, which is to have balanced forces on both Medan Timur and Medan Barat, and also raising a mechanized infantry brigade in Medan Timur.
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Also good to know that the Gempitas can be moved with the current KD Mahawangsa. Seems like around a dozen Gempita can be fitted inside KD Mahawangsa at any one time.
An armoured unit without armour would certainly not sit well with their members.Huh? say that to the para armor who already retired their scorpions and surviving by asking military police's ifv..So in a nutshell the KAD need another 200 vehicles to complement the av8 maybe thats why they are asking for a mixture of 6x6 and 4x4 as additional av8s are ruled out..
Around 160 plus I was told. The Para armoured squadron is just a support unit unlike an actual armour regiment so they will not be that unhappy even if they only used Adnans.
Enlighten me on this.Does they army not yet replacing the sibmas AFSV with the induction of numerous variants of AV8 still? Does additional 200+ vehicles seeked by the army are for condors replacement alone or condors + sibmas replacement?
All of the Sibmas AFSV - fire support - has been retired long ago, the ones that was retired earlier this year together with the Condors were the armoured recovery/engineer versions. ARV/AEV were to support the Condors if the latter brokedown in the field.
Wikpedia states that there is a signals intelligence variant of the Gempita (supposedly 3 units). Is this correct?