SHAH ALAM: Down To The Bone. In response to the participation of 18 Sqdn in Exercise Pitch Black in Australia, reader Tom Tom asked why RMAF Su-30MKM Flankers were not involved in the exercise. I responded that the 11th Sqdn aircraft are still mostly undergoing maintenance. No numbers were mentioned.
Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu or Mat Sabu in Parliament today revealed that only four of the Flankers are serviceable as the rest – 14 others – are “under repair”. He also said the MIG-29s has already been grounded as the cost of maintaining them were too costly.
“Thats the problem we (the military) are facing. That is the issue we have with military equipment, for example if we buy a new thing today, within ten years it will be obsolete, if we buy (update) its life for 10 years, within 20 years it will be obsolete. It is for this reason we have to review it from time. What ever it is the Malaysian Armed Forces are ever ready to defend the country’s sovereignity.
Mat Sabu also said that the company that maintaining the Flankers, awarded by the previous government was still doing it.
It must be noted that Mat Sabu flew on a Flanker on July 7 as part of his familiarisation tour of the Armed Forces so he must be aware of the 11th squadron’s travail.
The Star carried a story on what Mat Sabu said in Parliament today but after listening to a short recording of the proceedings I realised that the story was really misleading as it failed to report exactly what Mat Sabu said.
Posted below is part of the transcript of Mat Sabu’s statements to Parliament yesterday especially regarding the Sukhois and Fulcrums. He spoke at length on other matters, of course. The Hansard is available here.
Isu Sukhoi misalnya, yang boleh terbang dengan baik ada empat buah, 14 buah lagi sedang di
-repair dan kita cuba syarikat tempatan. Syarikat pada zaman Kerajaan BN dahulu, kita belum tamatkan
kontrak itu dan mereka sedang repair.MIG sudah grounded,sebab masalah barang-barang mahal yang kita hadapi ini ialah masalah maintenance. Ini yang kita hadapi. Oleh sebab itulah perkara alat
-alat tentera ini, kita beli hari ini baru, 10 tahun lagi sudah lapuk. Kita beli 10 tahun lagi, 20 tahun lagi sudah lapuk. Oleh sebab itulah kita perlu kaji dari semasa ke semasa. Walau bagaimanapun, kedudukan Angkatan Tentera Malaysia siap siaga untuk menjaga keselamatan Malaysia. Don’t worry di atas kebolehan itu
Yes the maintenance cost of the fighter fleet is high, and for the Russian ones, the inefficiency of the Soviet-model is making it worse. That was the reason I wanted to get rid of the Flankers as soon as possible.
* this is an updated version of this post.
— Malaysian Defence
If you like this post, buy me an espresso. Paypal Payment
View Comments (34)
just asking:
is it alright to tell public about how many aircraft available at the time??isn't that info suppose to be within mindef?
really hope this is just a plan by our menhan to show the new govt how big RMAF 'hole' and push RMAF agenda(really hope)
what about ATSC termination of contract??what will be?they said new company by our local company.....
Sigh.
Hmm... isn't that kinda national security to be revealing our level preparedness (or not, as in this case)?
Regardless of the exact technicalities, I think this Flanker issue highlight the priority of getting sufficient quantity of adequate platforms instead of focusing on uber expensive "state-of-the-art" platforms as these could never be obtained in sufficient number to ensure all-time availability. Hope the government can expedite the LCA plan. What about the Hawks? Warming the hanger as well?
Btw, head(s) is finally starting to row for the MH370 disaster, could some MoD/RMAF personnel be on the line next...
Too bad and too late. Rice has become porridges. It was viral now netizen said how RMAF has badly manage their assets. Even our pilot got insulted just swing leg and incapable. What a shame.
4 Sukhois available and 60% of our meagre Hornet fleet in Oz? Boy, we need those LCAs, quick! It's ludicrous to hee-haw and ho-hum twiddling our fingers and toes when our air defense down to single digits. Please, them Hawks don't count! Please get those Kuwaiti Hornets or those flying Samsungs a.k.a. FA50s or M346 or whatever kite that can our pilots can hump around. Lease them if we can buy them.
Tuan Taib we can get the wau bulan as many as possible....lol..seriously speaking as a layman we should seriously look into the latest varient of 346 F/A type. Cheaper than any mrca type n can get in great numbers with wat budget RMAF got...
There is still fpda. Rsaf last time help provide air cover wit intercept from IADS butterworth
Well 4 operational out of 18 is way better than Luftwaffes (German Air Force) current record of only 4 operational Typhoons out of 128 aircraft.
That is of course not the full picture as most of the fleet is going through the Sukhoi 10 year service milestone. This is their 1st 10 year servicing so it all comes in at the same time. For the next 10 year servicing it could be staggered if we can delay some of the aircrafts servicing now, so their next servicing could come in batches while other aircrafts still servicable. Good planning and juggling of airframe hours can mitigate this availability issue in the future.
The hornets current good servicability numbers is because all of them has recently gone through the 25X capability upgrade.
Only 4 out of 18 are serviceable.
A combine of lack of funds and the complexity of custom fighters. No surprise there.
India is worse with their MKI.