SHAH ALAM: On September 24, the Procurement Division of the Defence Ministry published a tender for the supply and delivery of one hundred High Mobility Reconnaisance Vehicle (HRMV) for the Army. The HRMV is the official name for the combat buggies being sought to complement the scramblers in reconnaissance platoons of the infantry units.
The HRMV are part of the 733 support vehicles sought by the Army and paid for by the 2024 budget. Anyhow 14 bidder had qualified for the tender with the highest bid pegged at RM134 million plus change. The highest bid is an outlier from the 13 other bids with the lowest bid at RM71.8 million. Two bids came in at RM76 million while six bids came exactly at RM72 million each.
The other bids came in at RM73 and RM74 million plus change. It must be noted that the apart from RM134 million bid the rest came under the budget for the combat utes. As I posted previously, the Polaris MRZR light tactical all-terrain vehicle is the favourite. Whether or not it was put forward as a bid and under the budget is beyond me. The others likely put forward for the bid is the China-made
China Desert Cross 1000.3 combat ute and the Chaiseri light tactical vehicle (LTV).
Unlike the MRZR with two or four seats variants, the Desert Cross can carry three soldiers and a load bed. The Chaiseri one has four seats and a small load bed in the rear. That said only the MRZR and the Desert Cross have been used in combat.
The tender for the supply and delivery of a single CBRN command vehicle is no less fierce than the HRMV. Eight bidders qualified for the tender with the lowest bid coming in at RM9.7 million and the highest RM10.5 million.
As for the tender to supply 45 gun towers for the Close Support Artillery Batallions, nine bidders have qualified with two bids coming exactly at RM28.350 million which was also the lowest bid. The highest is RM31.185 million.
The latest gun tower operated by the RAD is the 36 Iveco Daily procured in 2021. Based on the bid prices for the tender which the Iveco Dailys was selected, I am inclined to believe that the latest one involved only local assembled vehicles. Th other gun towers in service are the Vamtac operated by 1 RAD while the rest are Global Komited GK MK-1s and small batch Land Rover Defenders.
With the GK-M2 recently selected as the FFR vehicle for the Army, one might assume that the Global Komited vehicle will be favourite for this tender. Your guess is as good as mine!
— Malaysian Defence
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” six bids came exactly at RM72 million which suggests that it came from one bidder with six companies ”
I thought bid rigging / tender cartel is a big no-no right now?
https://www.lppsa.gov.my/integrity/2021/09/bagaimana-kartel-projek-tender-kerajaan-beroperasi/
BTW a single MRZR costs around USD55k. Civilian RZR costs around USD25-45k
A hundred of RZR comes out to around USD5.5 mil, or around RM24.2 mil.
If we look at the larger Polaris DAGOR, Canada bought 78 for USD15.5 mil. So a hundred of DAGOR will cost USD19.9 mil, or around RM87.4 mil.
Should get the MB Unimog with the portal axle. Those are hardcore offroaders.
These Hiluxes or pickups are good only for rural roads or farm work.
Hasnan – “These Hiluxes or pickups are good only for rural roads or farm work”
Judging from how the Taliban [when they seized power and later] and Chadians [against the Libyans] employed them I think they’re good for a bit more than that.
“to complement the scramblers”
If its to complement the EScramblers then the proposed HMRV should also be EV like the bikes.
“It is unlikely any one would have bid the vehicle”
Actually why not? Any local dealer that could rebrand Thai vehicles can also rebrand SG one for the tender with local CKD added. Do TDM actually care if their using SG sourced gear? Come on.
@Hulu
“I thought bid rigging / tender cartel is a big no-no right now?”
You think so? Then you gotta prove it. Hahahahaha!!!! Like everything else Madani, its just words. Once people know how to play the new game, its all dandy.
“Do TDM actually care if their using SG sourced gear? Come on”
It’s not the army… For political reasons it would be unlikely we’d get anything from down south.
If it was politically expedient to get things from Sinhspore; local companies would long have tied up with Singaporean companies to take part in various tenders. For that matter during bilateral talks; Singaporean PM’s would have raised the possibility of exports or cooperation in defence related stuff. Also note that whenever a PN meets his opposites; there is the usual talk of economic and other forms of competition but never on defence equipment. The only defence related thing mentioned is FPDA related and terrorism. Yes after a long absence Singaporean firms were back in LIMA and DSA but we were/are not the targeted buyer.
Ironic but their 1st defence export was to us : a million 7.62mm rounds in 1970. In the 1990’s both countries explored the possibility of joint production of certain things but it never progressed beyond the planning stage. We also got 7 ex RSAF Alo 3s