LABUAN: ROYAL Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) conducted its biggest exercise this year with Eks Paradise 2/2015 at the Labuan airbase here from Nov 9 to Nov 22. Eks Paradise (Paradrop Deepstrike Insertion Extraction) is the amalgamation of various exercises conducted by separately by units by RMAF in the past.
This years’ exercise was the second such exercise to be conducted, the first one was held in 2010. During the 13 day exercise some 367 sorties were conducted from air-to-air, air-to-ground, CSAR, helicopter and fixed wing escort, special forces insertion and air-to-air refueling. RMAF assets involved in the exercise included the F/A-18D Hornets, Su-30MKMs and Hawk 108/208 fighter jets, C130H, KC130 and CN235 transport planes and H225M and Nuri helicopters.
In the first stage from Nov 9 to 16, Field Training Exercise (FTX), Air to Ground (ATG) firings was conducted by the fighters and helicopters involved. In the War Exercise (WAREX) conducted between Nov 17 to 20, the capabilities of the assets involved were for CSAR, High Value Air Asset Protection, Combined Air Operations, Mix Fighter Force Operation and Large Force Employment were conducted.
According to RMAF Air Operations Commander Lt Gen Ackbal Abdul Samad said Eks Paradise was held to test the operational readiness, sustainability and command and control of its front line units. “This exercise is imperative for RMAF as it is a platform to conduct tests and improve the capability and readiness of RAMF in preserving the sovereignty of the nation’s airspace effectively and efficiently,” he said.
He spoke to the media after closing the exercise on Nov 20 where demonstrations of special forces insertion and extraction and the interception of a wayward aircraft were performed.
Labuan airbase was chosen for the exercise in line with the government’s aspiration to boost the security of Sabah and preserved the national security. Despite still described as a forward operating base, the airbase now operates the full spectrum of the RMAF air capability from the Hercules transport planes, the King Air B200T MPA, the H225M helicopters and a batch of Hawk 208 fighter jets.
Labuan airbase is also the staging area for the air units operating in Sandakan and Tawau in support of the operations in the ESSCOM AOR.
Ackbal said a full squadron of Hawk jets will be permanently based Labuan once the infrastructure was in placed. Other RMAF fast jets from the Hornets and the Sukhois will also be stationed on temporary basis at the air base from time to time.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (16)
Is it true that RMAF will be the 2nd largest F/A-18 operator after the USA with the possible procurement of ASH/SH and \"donation\" of the Kuwaitis and Australian Hornets? If so, when can we expect all this to materialise?
Reply
Where do you heard such rumours? There is still no word whether funding for MRCA will be available. The acquisition of ex Kuwaiti Hornets is just proposal by this website. No one at MINDEF is thinking about this at all.
Officially what is the designation of the cougars in tudm (ie what does tudm themselves call those birds)? Ec735 or h225m?
By the way the indonesian also had a similar exercise almost the same time as malaysia. Coincidence? The Latihan Lapangan Pasukan Pemukul Reaksi Cepat (PPRC) TNI 2015 was conducted in morotai island with a paradrop of more than 1000 troops, marine amphibious landings and fighter operations.
Any info of the hawk squadron to be based in labuan? We have only 19 aircaft to be shared with 3 squadrons (butterworth, kuantan and now labuan) so would this mean a "full squadron" will consist of just 6 or 7 aircraft?
Also what kind of upgrades that has been done at labuan airbase? New QRA sheds? Aircraft wash down systems (a good feature for aircraft returning from maritime missions)?
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Its EC725, the official designation of TUDM. Apparently they have not decided on the numbers or the exact squadron to be relocated to Labuan. Yes new QRA sheds, none seen yet, plus hangars for line checks. We were not taken to hangar where the King Airs are located so yes they could have wash down systems there.
Nanonano,
Even in the extremely unlikely event that Australia and Kuwait both agreed to transfer/sell/donate their legacies Hornets to us; where do we find the air and ground crews? Given the number of pilots recruited per annum, the number that get streamed to fast jets and the number of intermediate trainers we have; there is no way the RMAF in the short term will be able to significantly increase the size of its fighter fleet.
Emm
I mean this type of wash down system, on the taxiway after landing
http://www.f-16.net/g3/var/resizes/f-16-photos/album39/album29/93-118.jpg?m=1371929663
@azlan
By transfer, it should not mean all of those aircraft to be inducted into tudm. Getting around 30-40 operational examples to reequip 2 sqns replacing the migs (so leveraging all the current mig sqn personnels) and to add to the current 18 skuadron. Surely tudm could manage that.
But imo a cheaper smaller new plane to replace the depleted hawk numbers first would be a better and more realistic programme than to continue with the expensive MMRCA programme. Any possibility of surplus hornets in the future would be additional to the new fighter aircraft buy.
Reply
I am not sure about that, will asked about it next time around it.
Sorry Marhalim, just out of curiosity, read it in one of the military FB page. Sounds so great, that\'s why need to verify with you..hehe
Azlan, yeah, you\'re right, no way RMAF can come up with enough jocks for the fighters in a short time. We are short of everything militarily. My bad..
..........,
FTC 1 can only train so many pilots a year; same goes for FTC 3. Irrespective of how many used aircraft actually enter service and how many crews there currently are; we still have to ensure - in the longer term - that there is a constant pool to replace those who are re-assigned and those who leave the service. The RMAF can't significantly (my personal definition of "significant" would include the "30-40" you mentioned) increase its fighter fleet : not only due to financial reasons but also due to manpower and other reasons.
My take is that the RMAF is not keen on acquiring pre-used Hornets due to worries that the politicians and bean counters in the Ministry of Finance will use this an an excuse to further delay the purchase of a new generation MRCA; which the RMAF desires not only to maintain numbers but also ensure it doesn't get too left behind, technologically.
What kind of
a) numbers (can we afford to get even 18 brand new mrcas?)
b) technology so we wouldn't be left behind that we would get from so called "new generation" (to me those are only current generation) brand new mrcas? Those SH, Typhoon and Rafales would cost no less than usd2 billion for even a dozen example. Could we afford it now? Aesa, datalinks etc are available for upgrades even for the legacy hornets. The real technological breakthrough would only be available on F-35 class of fighters.
Buying a brand new mrca NOW (before 2020) would not give the numbers and the perceived technological advantage that tudm needs. To maintain the fighter numbers now, a low end supersonic fighter with similar capability and price of the hawk should be a higher priority than the mrca programme. The search for a brand new mrca would be ideal after 2025, when more options would be available (and after the numbers in tudm has been fulfilled with the low cost fighter to supplement the MKM and Hornet)
As for personnel, all the mig pilots and crew would be available for any additional fighter that tudm inducts in near future, as the migs are being phased out.
...... - ''As for personnel, all the mig pilots and crew would be available for any additional fighter that tudm inducts in near future, as the migs are being phased out.''
Some are being promoted and reassigned; others are leaving the service. Since the numbers of operational Fulcrums were reduced - from the existing 14 single seaters to about 10 or less - the number of pilots would also have been reduced.
''can we even afford to get 18 brand new MRCAs''?
Irrespective of the fact that there is no cash allocated for the programme at the moment; the fact remains that the government has agreed in principle to allocate cash for 18 at a later date. Even if the economy were to improve significantly; the government is unlikely to allocate funding for more than 18.
Even if we were to buy the F-35 I doubt it would lead to any ''real technological breakthrough''''. Prestige and having access to a top of the line current gen fighter yes but ''real technological breakthrough'' no, irrespective of whether the F-35 is more ''stealthy'' or ''advanced'' than the Gripen, Rafale or Typhoon.
Getting a new MRCA - whether a Gripen or Typhoon - and the needed systems capabilities, as well as tertiary capabilities like hitting time sensitive targets; would provide us with a leap in capabilities compared to what we have now. On paper, getting pre-used fighters is sound but the RMAF will have its own valid reasons - despite any of us disagreeing - with not going down that route.
Whatever it is, in spite of your so called governments "agreement in principle" to fund the mrca's, it still does not answer your claim of the mrca buy when it would come (when is the earliest, 2020?) would ""maintain numbers (can we really afford the 18 units required? Can it arrive in the near future?) but also ensure it doesn't get too left behind, technologically (what advantage the shortlisted mrca has that a legacy hornet with aesa, hmd, datalinks or our current mkm don't?).""
The reality is, both of the tudm's dream mrca (typhoon and rafale) are almost impossible to be bought in the required numbers. Let say for usd2 billion, tudm would be lucky to get even 8 examples of the mrca, let alone 18.
Now in 2015 tudm has a fleet of
18 su-30mkm
8 f/a-18d
19 hawk 108/208
10 mig-29n/nub (to be retired in a few months time)
8 mb339cm (trainer)
Compare that to 20 years ago 1995
18 mig-29n/nub
8 f/a-18d
28 hawk 108/208
12 mb339am (trainer)
We have currently more or less similar amount of top of the line fighters, and probably more high end capability than in 1995. In contrast the low end fighter capability (the hawks) have been reduced by attrition. Too much focus on mrca (with still no decision in sight) while not pushing for a more cheaper and affordable plan to add/replace hawks will mean we could be without a new mrca (as funding is still not forthcoming) and dwindled hawk numbers probably until far after 2020.
Our 28 hawks was bought for usd 741 million and that was in 1992. A similar number of golden eagles would cost only a little bit more than that (and if consider the inflation since 1992, it is actually a lot cheaper than the hawks!), with a marked increase in capability compared to the hawks. And all that number at a cost of probably 1/3rd of the new mrca programme. It could be pitched to the government as a phase 1 of mrca, with phase 2 (all those dream planes) in 2025. A more logical and achievable plan in my opinion. Buy a cheap capable low end supersonic fighter with the required quantity first, then think about high end new mrca's (or the surplus hornets).
im curios about light attack aircraft role's in our air force..we already had mrca,they could conducted in any missions.. so what's purpose of hawks?....do we need to replaces hawks too in future?
Reply
The Hawks are used for a variety of roles, from escort to light strike attack for the 208s, the single seater. They are also used to train new pilots and WSOs for the two seater variants (108). The Hawks are the planes new pilots get operational hours before moving on to other platforms.