SHAH ALAM: It appears that the decades long SPH requirement may well be filled soon though it is unlikely any contract will be signed before the general elections. The Army would probably be putting the M109 SPH into service this year but the government in 2019 had quietly cancelled the deal.
Anyhow it appears that another contender has been elevated as a favourite. The yet-to-be sold Slovak Konstruckta Defence EVA truck mounted SPH. A Slovak think tank on September 1 wrote that:
Malaysia will shortly conclude a deal for the Slovak made EVA wheeled self-propelled artillery. The final specifics of the Malaysian purchase have yet to be finalized, but it is anticipated that the order will be in the range of 16-18 pieces. Further details regarding production and potential licensing have not been revealed at this time. This deal will be the first export, and indeed order of, the EVA wheeled self-propelled howitzer.
The report was first published by defence outlet, Shephard. A cursory look into the think-tank article however indicated that it is likely based on the conversations between Konstruckta Defence and its local marketing agent (unknown at this time) with the Defence Ministry.
The Slovak angle came in the heels of a leak regarding the SPH deal by a political blogger, that a local company was supposed to get the contract via direct-negotiations instead of a tender. Malaysian Defence has posted last year that the SPH requirement was supposed to go through a tender but somehow it went into direct negotiations.
It appears that the leak had worked as intended. It was basically a leak to kill. That is the reason of the story of another contender. Whether or not it will make it to the finish line, its beyond me for the moment.
— Malaysian Defence
View Comments (65)
The saddest part of this is that our defence procurement is still used to get massive financial gains for cronies, while giving defence substandard weapons. Even after what happened to the Gowind.
The Turkish SPH is ranked 5th among the SPH that was trialed by TD. Basically it is trash. And the direct nego price is like double the price of proven SPH such as CAESAR. Better get the cheap chinese SPH rather than that unproven trash. At least the chinese SPH is used operationally by chinese army itself.
Sad that our turkish defence relations is not used to get the best equipment that turkey can offer, such as the TB2, but to get unwanted and unproven weapons and flog them at insane prices.
This is all getting a bit silly
Most of the Malaysian do not like defense spend + our Politian always use defense spending as a topic and end up the user fail to get anything they want. Those have changes involve on defense supply do not put full effort into it by just gaining money from government or try to corrupt the pay given by government. We are far fall behind others Asian, like Philippine.
Out of topic, Russian tank in HOT cake. Hmm... seriously we should forget about this legacy? Like our PT-91M
https://twitter.com/HuarenNews/status/1569071968980451329?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1569071968980451329%7Ctwgr%5E5e2adeef5115c4440e850a971252e6d6914bc692%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.chinapress.com.my%2F20220915%2Fe4bf84e883b6e6acb2e8bf94e7a596e59bbd-e58f8de8a2abe68b92e4ba8ee997a8e5a496%2F
Hulubalang - "that turkey can offer, such as the TB2"
Why do people still sing this tune?
The TB2 is a tactical armed UAS and the Anka is a MALE ISR platform. The requirement is for a MALE ISR platform; it's about requirements ....
Michael- "Out of topic, Russian tank in HOT cake. Hmm… seriously we should forget about this legacy? Like our PT-91M"
This discussion has been discussed extensively in the past.
The Russians deployed armour badly: without proper combined arms; no flank screens; no aerial overwatch; no APSs; etc.
No the tank has not been made obsolete; similar claims have been made before;notable after Yom Kippur in 1973; all premature. There remains no alternative to the tank when it comes to delivering mobile, protected firepower; if you did some objective research rather than just reacting to Twitter feeds you'd realise the tank is not a legacy.
I've always preferred a fully automatic system; it does away with the need for the crew to be exposed out in the open; requires less crew and the vehicle can relocate faster [the Ukrainians manage relocate their M-777s in 80 seconds].
Hulubalang - Basically it is trash"
I thinks that's a major exaggeration.
Anyway, the actual system is merely part of the equation; arty needs to deliver accurate responsive fire and needs to be able to shift fire rapidly; the right organisation of needed; as well as the ability to locate targets and to be fully incorporated with maneuver units.
@hulubalang
May I know where you got that assessment info and 5th place in what sense?
@Hulubalang
I won't call our A400 transport aircraft 'trash'. We were the first users and thankfully those 4 birds aren't trash. I'm curious as to where you got your conclusions of TD basically saying Yavuz SPH stands 5th down the line. All weapons are good if utilised correctly. We can't all flyy F35s and go crashing thru' the plains in M1 Abrams mate.
Tried a few times today to reply but cannot.
A400M has zero trials before we buy it (it was a paper plane then).
TD did trials on SPHs, either locally or overseas. From those trials it is said that the Yavuz is ranked 5th (basically bottom end) in the scheme of things.
Ranked 5th while costing so much more than arguably the number 1 SPH (the CAESAR) is the epitome of trash.
18 units of yavuz according to the direct nego letter will cost 0.854 billion ringgit. For around the same cost indonesia got 55 CAESAR in 2 batches (37 + 18). Is it acceptable? Is it a good deal?
@Taib All weapons are good if utilised correctly
Then it goes back to the question of why not get the stuff TD wants, which they think is the best out of their evaluation tests, with the same price or cheaper than something ranked lower?
unproven SPH costing 3x of what indonesia pay for Caesar.
still many ppl say yes to that turkish SPH
stupid