SHAH ALAM: Army Recapitalisation Programme. It appears that we are all unaware that the Army had embarked on its recapitalisation programme for its vehicle fleet. It actually started with the Gempita procurement programme. The Army dubbed the Gempita procurement as Mobility Phase 1 as it involved Kenderaan Jenis A or Type A vehicles, or armoured vehicles.

What about Lipan Bara and IAG Guardian purchases then, as both are armoured vehicles? It is likely that both were purchased under an Urgent Operational Requirement and not part of the mobility programme.

The Gempita procurement was so big that the other phases of the programme, Mobility II and III procurement had to be done in small batches in RMK 10 and RMK11 as I stated previously. And delays in the Gempita procurement has also resulted that it will only end in RMK12.

Mobility Phase II involved Kenderaan Jenis B, Type B Vehicles or combat support vehicles and Mobility Phase III are for Kenderaan Jenis C or Type C Vehicles or logistics vehicles. This is the reason the tender for the vehicles – weapon carriers, motorcycles and scramblers – as reported here.

Hot on the heels of the above, Mindef has also advertised the tenders for new General Services Cargo 4X4 trucks – three and five tonne ones. As the trucks are combat support vehicles, the tenders are classified under Mobility Phase 11.The last time Mindef ordered a large number of 3 tonnes GS Cargo 4X4 was in 2016, for 222 Deftech Handalan II, the latest version of Handalan. Deftech had supplied some 1,870 Handalan 1 trucks from 1996 to 2003. Based on the number supplied in the past, there is a possibility that some 1,500 three-tonne GS Cargo 4X4 trucks will need to be replaced within the next ten years as this time around they are only looking for 132 trucks.

As for five-tonne GS Cargo 4X4 trucks, the Army is looking for 12 vehicles in the latest tender. The Army bought around a dozen Iveco Eurotrekker five-tonne GS Cargo 4X4 trucks around 2010 and 2014. Their existence was only confirmed when the Army published pictures of the trucks being prepared for deployment to assist in relief operations during the 2014 floods.

These have since been supplemented by an unknown number of MAN Five Tonne GS Cargo 4X4 trucks.
At DSA 2016, AVP Engineering Sdn Bhd displayed the truck at its stand and announced an MOU with MAN Malaysia for the distribution of their range of trucks. Although no announcement of a contract with the Army was announced, a number of the MAN trucks have been seen in the wild spotting the digital camouflage.

Apart from the Army, a large number of the same trucks have also been purchased by the Agensi Penyelamat Malaysia, the Civil Defence Agency.

*updated with the number of vehicles and clarity.

–Malaysian Defence

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