SHAH ALAM: Thanks to the RAAF we now have pictures of the Eurofighter Typhoons operating out of RMAF Butterworth. Four RAF Typhoons are taking part in Exercise Bersama Lima 2011 including a single twin seater. However, I have not seen the pictures of the twin seater yet.
Another interesting visitor to the Butterworth base is the RAAF Wedgetail AEW. I believe this was the first time that the Aussie had flown the Wedgetail here.
A RAF VC10 tanker was also seem flying out of Subang airbase yesterday but I was unable to take out my camera in time though.
Lets hope the RAAF post more pictures especially those taken in the air soon.
— Malaysian Defence
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“Lets hope the RAAF post more pictures especially those taken in the air soon.” – Marhalim
Agreed. Unfortunately we can’t even get simple answers to simple questions from the TUDM, Ministry of Defence, et al.
The Typhoons and Hornets [RAAF] were probably networked to the Wedgetail. No idea if 18SQs Hornets have been fitted with a data link.
Thanks to the RAAF we have FPDA photos and thanks to the USN we have photos from CARAT. It seems that photos taken by the MAF only appear in Perajurit and occasionally Berita Harian. And thanks to foreign publications we know that the RMN participated in Ex-Kakadu [Australia], Ex-Aman [Pakistan], Ex-Milan [{India] and that an A109 and a CN-235 was at Avalon and RIAT.
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I believe most of Mindef are very conscious about the perception from the public on its seemingly close relationship with foreign forces especially those involving “Orang Putih”. That said we also have not seen much publicity from Mindef on regional interaction with other Asean armed forces. While it is understandable that the media will ignore routine bilateral or trilateral exercise but with the advent of websites, it will be easy to run three para stories on such events like what the Singaporeans are doing.
Not all of its its the top leadership fault. Its mostly due to lack of funds which in turn make civil servants not wanting to do extra work or get the opportunity to obtain extra training.
Compared to our Southern neighbours we are living in the stone age.They have both hardcopy and softcopy monthly newsletters that will divulge injuries, death, accidents etc etc that is occurring in the Singaporean armed forces.This is real transparency, accountability and willingness to be open. We must learn how they do it…
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They need to be open otherwise the citizen soldier programme will quickly unravel in this modern age. We are stuck in the RAHSIA mode….
It has just been announced that DRB Hicom had awarded a contract worth Euro 36million to Rheinmetall Nordic for the procurement of the Vingtaqs II long range surveillance & Recce system to the Malaysian Army. This system is meant to be mounted in the AV8 and delivery is scheduled for 2014 and the system consists of surveillance radar to laser designate targets to support the forward air controllers for strike missions.
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Yes, I tweeted it already…
Buang masa. Should be mounted on a Hilux.
Simon
As everybody thought,Eurofighter Typhoon from the RAF will participating in LIMA 2011.Hope the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be sign by the Government during this year exhibition.Don’t let the Southern neighbour show off their F-15SG and F-35(coming)anymore.
Hurry up !!Let’s we replaced the old fighter with the new one.Get closer onto the deadliest MBDA Meteor and JSOW/JDAM.
just read at janes defence weekly US navy planning to retire 9 Ticonderoga-class cruisers and 3 Whidbey Island-class dock landing ships.is there any chance we can get those whidbey island and maybe ticonderoga too to our inventory.
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The operating costs will crippled the armed forces…
YM LEE,
The SAF is not under the same amount of media scrutiny the way the MAF is. The press here has much more leeway in reporting on the MAF, especially these past few years.
Athrun Zala,
No way in hell Uncle Sam will sell us the Ticos plus we do not have the manpower to run them.
The island class Landing craft would come in handy. Dont think we can afford the cruisers though, even if it is secondhand.
Hi.
Is there any possibilities for TUDM to at least have the look of Sukhoi PAK FA instead of Typhoons and Super Hornet. We should keep that option open since the cost of Superhornet and Typhoons are more or less comparable with Sukhoi PAK FA. It is understood that it is yet tested in the real combat, but looking at the review, it is very much worth it. I think, TUDM still go on with the pair engines rather than single engine, so Super Hornet still have that advantage.
And I’m still wondering, why TUDM didn’t buy a prominent number for jets. Why 8 hornets, not 12 for minimum squadron. Why 18 Sukhoi rather than 24 jets (2 squadron).
Why not add another 18 Sukhoi instead (3 squadrons of Sukhoi)?. I am wondering what’s the fate of MIG 29N, since the procurement for new jet fighters are yet to be known due to the lack of funds, etc. I was hoping at least 12 Mig 29N could fly, instead of only 6 jets.
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Yes they will have to look at the PAK-FA once it is operational and as for the rest is more or less about money, or the lack of it….
So much has been said.We want defence we want to change planes, ships etc etc. Everything must be new. Why cant we buy second hand? The Dutch has been selling off large quantities of their F-16’s and there is now another batch of 18 coming on-stream to be sold after the sale to Chile in two trances . If we don’t have the money, don’t just buy and make the country poorer.Better to buy the second hand ones. If Chile can accept such planes, why cant Malaysia?
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They still can get over the Skyhawk and the float plane (cannot remember its name) especially when it comes to buying second-hand things. RMN fared better, in fact it is their new built that caused the most headache, Rahmat, Lekiu, TAR, Kedah….
mr_abs,
We decided to buy the 8 Hornets after intense lobbying from the State Department. The original intention was only to buy the 18 Fulcrums. An RFI was later issued for 18 Hornets Cs, then the 97 Economic Crisis came. In short the decision to buy the Fulcrums and Flankers was very political. Apart from funding, the number of fast jets we can buy will always be dictated by the number of pilots we have and the availability of LIFTs.
Marhalim,
The Grumman Albatross. One was an ex-RCAF example with VIP fittings.
Hi.
Very much political indeed. It’s more towards the balance of buying from the Russia and the US, and the financial crisis. That is understandable why the govt bought 8 hornets.
However, there were news circulating that the hornets were actually the ‘downgraded’, without the sourcecode of using missile. I do not have any idea what’s the meaning of that sourcecode, but that was the news circulating around from a very reliable source, tun m. (Correct me if i’m wrong)
I knew that among the reasons why fulcrums were grounded, was because there’s not enough number of pilots to fly the jets. However, i’m still hoping, the number of operational fulcrums are 12, not 6. I do set the figures of Singapore’s jets as the benchmark, and the ratio that we can estimate. We do lack of numbers.And when i asked people from a reliable background, they keep on giving the same answer, the unsymmetrical wars tactics, that’s how we deal with the lack of numbers of jets.
Well, i always hoping we could increase the numbers of jets. Not like the introduction of sukhoi into inventories, and then the fulcrums have to be grounded. I am hoping, the numbers would increase, without any reduction in the quantities.
The float plane was the HU-16 Albatros (ex-USN).
Problem with second-hand is with judging the amount of life left. F-16s with few flying hours left may be cheap, but you don’t get much use out of them before you have to start spending a lot of money to overhaul them.
mr_abs,
All the reports about the Hornet being unfit for combat because the source and product codes were not given is false. Uncle Sam hardly provides the source and product codes to anyone and the Hornets are still combat capable without the codes. The codes are needed if we intend on integrating non-standard stuff to the Hornets, which we don’t and neither do we have the know how for it. Contrary to popular belief, even the Russians do not freely hand out their codes. On of the reasons we have always operated small numbers of fighters is because the main role of the RMAF for decades was aiding the army on counter insurgency ops and our threat perceptions. For more than 2 decades there were 2 RAAF Mirage 111 squadrons at Butterworth so we didn’t need more fighters..