SHAH ALAM: In a previous post, I lamented that Malaysia was the only Asean founding country which is importing its small arms ammo from others despite having a domestic factory on its own. And despite this two companies had announced that they were also building a small arms ammo factory on their own.
The first factory – located in Pahang – has been completed, I was told. That said the company – Ketech Asia Sdn Bhd – has not announced the start of ammunition production.
And as if Malaysian Defence has any impact on the country’s defence conversation, Defence Ministry Secretary-General Lokman Hakim Ali visited the Ketech small arms ammo factory on December 28. Unfortunately, apart from giving us a glimpse of what was happening inside the factory, the post on the visit does not give any indication of its capabilities. The post
Pahang, 28 Disember 2024 – YBhg. Datuk Lokman Hakim bin Ali, Ketua Setiausaha, telah mengadakan lawatan ke Kilang Ketech Asia Sdn Bhd. Tujuan lawatan adalah untuk melihat tahap keupayaan infrastruktur dan fasiliti syarikat dalam menghasilkan produk pertahanan.
Sejurus itu, YBhg. Datuk KSU mengadakan lawatan ke Kem Batalion Kelapan Rejimen Askar Melayu Diraja dan melihat fasiliti kemudahan di sekitar kem.
Seterusnya, beliau turut mengadakan lawatan kebajikan dan menyantuni Veteran ATM yang berada di sekitar kuala lipis.
And as usual, Malaysian Defence have a previous post on the same subject which tells us more about factory itself, barely, of course.
For the record, at DSA 2022, Ketech Asia signed an agreement with a Turkish firm Atesci for a project of small arms ammunition production factory in Malaysia. Ketech followed-up the agreement some eight months later when it signed a leasing agreement with the Pahang State Development Corporation (PSDC). The agreement paves the way for Ketech Asia to build an ammunition factory at Kechau Taui, a small settlement some 35km from Kuala Lipis town. PKNP release at that point stated that the project will involve an investment of RM120 million.
It is likely that ammunition factory will be the site for the local assembly of the Caracal assault rifles if and when Ketech Asia got the contract to supply the firearm to the army.
From the pictures of the SecGen visit, it appears that the Ketech factory is already equipped with at least one line to produce 9mm ammo. This is based on checks on its machineries supplier – Atesci – of Turkey.
To produce 5.56mm and 7.62mm ammo, Ketech need another production line. Perhaps it is there already but was not pictured during the visit. Is the factory ready to supply ammo for local and foreign markets? Is it any good? I have no answers for both questions, really. It is interesting to note that Lokman met with TS Shahrom Nordin the chairman of SMEO Sdn Bhd, a day before his visit to the Ketech Asia factory. The meeting took place at the ministry though and not at the SMEO factory in Batu Arang.
— Malaysian Defence
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Its a good start & i hope it will be sustainable. Look at Vietnam quietly developing their own costal defence missile the VCS-01 based on soviet Rubezh. Mindef should give grant for R&D for this kind of project so that local companies can start developing. We are not short of clever people but an honest one.
Too bad for them the last big order tender was just given out right before they started production so its gonna be a while before they even get a sniff of a buy.
Good. Start from the little things first. From the bullet to the armored vehicle. Yes, we can do it. We have a talent, infrastructure, but we lack of support from right parties.
Strategic local defence product producers like ammo production should be concessions and preferred pricing in order to be sustainable.
Otherwise the government must invest in foreign producers as stakeholder.
“preferred pricing in order to be sustainable.”
And that preferred pricing is 300% more than what we can buy overseas, for a cashstrapped armed forces, we cant be wasteful to be paying more for less. We been doing that for decades yet it still never sustainable.