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Malaysia -RMN

PV fiasco and my mistake

KUALA LUMPUR: In my earlier post on the PV fiasco, Malaysian Defence mistakenly reported that the sixth ship of Kedah class will be in service by 2010. After reading the Auditor General report again, Malaysian Defence realised that there was a chance that the whole project could collapsed if more […]

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Malaysian Defence

Decisions, decisions

NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Bernama) — Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said here the question of Malaysia despatching troops to join the United Nations’ peacekeeping force in Darfur is dependent on Sudan and the UN.

He said Malaysia had earlier on announced its desire to participate in the peacekeeping operation, its willingness to do so based on a good track record and the integrity of Malaysian peacekeeping troops in previous stints.

However, he added, the UN has informed that a decision had been made and that the peacekeepers from Asian countries would come from Thailand and Bangladesh.

He said the UN arrived at the decision although Sudan had asked for the peacekeepers to also comprise Malaysians.

Syed Hamid said he believed that Darfur would be one of the several issues that would be discussed at the 62nd General Assembly of the UN scheduled to begin here tomorrow.

Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is scheduled to arrive here tomorrow and is expected to deliver his speech at the assembly on Thursday.

The other issues expected to be raised at this session include Myanmar, Palestine, Kosovo, the Middle East road map to peace and Iran’s nuclear programme.

–bernama

PUTRAJAYA, Sept 24 (Bernama) — The Malaysian astronaut to blast off to the International Space Station on Oct 10 will be decided at the last minute after both the country’s candidates are recognised as astronauts.

Prime minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said today that Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor would be placed with the first crew for the Soyuz 15-S mission while Captain Dr Faiz Khaleed would join the second crew.

“All the final changes in the selection of the candidate for the mission will be decided by the Russians later. This process is necessary to ensure that the mission proceeds smoothly and successfully,” Abdullah said when making the announcement live from his office here.

The two Malaysian astronauts will be at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, from Friday to undergo final training before the launch on Oct 10.
[…]

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Malaysian Defence

Oh, No, Not The Dreaded Word Again!

KUALA LUMPUR: The word “hub” has been so misused in Malaysia that Malaysian Defence dreads every time it is used to describe projects most of which had bitten the dust. Infact, the regional MRO hub dream have been used several times before without ever being realised. Now a new one […]

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Malaysia- MMEA

MMEA Helicopter and LEO II FLIR

KUALA LUMPUR: To be honest, I was thinking of doing something else tonight but the sound of a Fenestron-equipped helicopter inspired me to write this posting. As it is pitch black tonight, I am unable to positively identify the helicopter, which started doing the circuit about 9pm, but I am […]

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Malaysian Defence

Helicopters and Missiles

KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Mohamad Zin told parliament yesterday that the Nuri replacement would be decided after the international open tender closed in December. Huh? Did they already floated the tender? Did Kementah realised that some people in London, Rome and Toulouse knew about the tender first before […]

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malaysia

Mi-17 and the Auditor General Report

KUALA LUMPUR: The New Straits Times ran a story on Saturday  on the Mi-17 based on the Auditor-General’s annual report. Excerpts from the story: KUALA LUMPUR: Two helicopters worth RM117.75 million purchased for the police air wing could not be used as they did not meet Department of Civil Aviation […]

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budget

Malaysian 2008 Defence Budget

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Defence looked hard and long for news on the defence allocation in the 2008 budget in various news outlets but to no avail. Only after reading through the whole budget speech that Malaysian Defence found it. You can also find it in line 126 of Pak Lah […]