SHAH ALAM: Back in January, Malaysian Defence reported there were strong head winds against the four Black Hawk helicopters being leased for the Army’s Air Wing. I reported that the strongest indication of positive news would be the appearance of the Black Hawks at the Army’s Day parade on March 1.

If you are not aware the parade was held in Segamat, Johor. This was the first time that the parade – in recent memory – was not held either in Kuala Lumpur or Port Dickson in Negri Sembilan. Officially, Segamat was chosen as it was one of the sites of battles in the Japanese invasion of Malaya in 1941.

That said Segamat is also the birthplace of the current Army chief TS General Muhammad Hafizuddeain Jantan as you can read from his profile here. I am not complaining but I hope that this year’s event will set a precedent for future Army Day parade and its associated carnival will also be held at other locations as well including in Sabah and Sarawak. The Army is the only service that is capable of doing this as they have numerous units and bases in the country and the fact their parades could be held anywhere unlike their sister services which are limited to their bases.

Anyhow, pictures from the parade – I was not able to make it to Segamat for reasons – indicated that the Black Hawks did not take part in the fly past. At least a single AW109 and another MD-530G LSAH took part in the fly past though.

The non-appearance of the Black Hawk showed that the head winds remained strong. That said Aerotree managing director Halim Othman in a posting on his personal Facebook page posted on February 24 that the fourth batch of PUTD pilots had successfully completed the Black Hawk simulator training in Turkey.

It must be noted that Malaysian Defence is aware of the reasons for the strong head winds but is unable to say it here and in the previous post. What is the next course of action? For me I am going to wait until DSA 2024. If Covid or anything else does not gets in the way, of course.

— Malaysian Defence

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