SHAH ALAM: The Army will have a parade at Dataran Merdeka on Sunday (Mar 6 2011) as part of its 78th anniversary celebration. The Army is also having an exhibition at Dataran Merdeka this weekend. The parade starts at 8am.
https://www.malaysiandefence.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=nextgen-gallery
For close-up pictures of equipment though make your way to the Muzium Negara parking lot (from today onwards). You can also get a chance to talk to our soldiers.
— Malaysian Defence
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Had a look at the army exhibition today. It’s well worth a visit. Was actually hoping to see Scorpion and a Stormer but I was told that the Scorpions are being overhauled. Saw something new which I never knew was ordered, a Mechem NTW-20 rifle. Found out it’s being used by the RMR and Gerak Khas.
Marhalim, the vehicles are parked in front of the church, next to the Selangor Club. There is an ASTROS, PT-91, Condor [the interior looked very worned out], MIFV/KIFV, Adnan 25mm variant, Adnan mortar variant, Jernas with radar and tracker, G-5, Model 56 and a mobile medical facility.
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Previously they were all parked next to the museum. Do send us pictures, I am too busy to go to KL…
i am surprise they still use the mifv. perajurit magazine stated few months back it is lready mothballed…be nice if they can change the .5 calibre HMG maybe to 90mm cockerill as i believe it is a more stable platform than the scorpion
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We dont have enough platforms to retire anything. Even the old MB trucks are still being used in some units even as a wrecker…
The MIFV still equips 3 battalions and received a new engine and auto gear 6 years ago. Unlike the Adnan it only offers protection against 12.7mm though. Problem with the 90mm is it’s neither here nor there. It’s great for fire support and taking out field fortifications but not very useful against anything heavier than an APC. Today’s parade was great, there were about 40 armoured vehicles. Never seen that many in my life, in one go! Nice to see the Scorpion and Stormer again after so long.
Had a vey interesting conversation with a guy from the signals, who rose from the ranks and is now a Captain. He gave me a demonstration on how they send encrypted comms over the network. I have never met anyone in the ATM who is so passionate about his job. He even has a lab in his office where he experiments with different comm sets!! In Bosnia he was attached to NATO HQ when MALBATT became MALCOM and was placed under NATO command.
Marhalim, give me a few days, i’ll send you some pics.
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Yes its has been shown since WWII putting an adequate gun on an inadequate chassis is not always a good idea. It will be much better since the M113 chassis was never designed to survive a hit from anything than a big HMG it will better to mount an 105 mm howitzer or 120mm mortar on these vehicles. I prefer the 105mm howitzer ala the WW11 SPH but I guess a 120mm mortar would be faster and easier to integrate …
I will be much grateful for the pics. Due to domestic issues I was not able to go for the parade or even the exhibition.
Many have critised the army’s decision in the 80’s to fit the 90mm Cockerill on the Scorpion, not realising that the Scorpion was meant to be used for the armed recce and the fire support roles, not hunting other armoured vehicles or tanks. Personaly I think it was a mistake as the hull of the Scorpion is too small and cannot take the weight of the 90mm medium pressure Cockerill. Interestingly enough, the TNI-AD is the latest customer of the Scorpion and also selected the 90mm Cockerill.
Apart from maybe some smaller items, the only 2 new items that I really noticed was the engineering variant of the PT-91M and the NTW 20mm rifle. The tent of the Signals Regiment was very interesting – they had almost everything on display from stuff used for the section nett right up to stuff used at brigade HQ’s. All in all, the army did a great job with the exibition and the parade.
There were 2 Singaporeans strutting around around in their new digital camo, one of which had a Ranger tab on his left sleeve. Found out from him their Ranger course is run in Singapore and Thailand. Also had a nice chat with about 5-6 foreign army officers who are attending the army’s Staff college. Word is also out that the army is toying around with the idea of coming out with a digital pattern camo. Can’t picture our hard and soft skinned vehicles being painted in a digital pattern!
azlan,regarding the scorpion being turreted with 90mm gun goes way way back..during that time where all MBT were well armoured,n malaysia not affording to purchase MBT at that time,due to pricing go its own way of fixing the scorpion with 90mm just because it is able to fire a fin stablising rounds,which is the in thing in the 80’s to defeat MBT.