SHAH ALAM: Greek to Me. RMAF has yet to be officially informed of plans for it to get second-hand fighter jets and patrol planes.
It’s the same for the barter deal with India.
RMAF chief Jen Affendi Buang said it was for this reason he could not comment on such offers apart from saying that they have yet to be officially notified of them.
Affendi was asked to comment on recent reports of the RMAF getting used fighters from Saudi Arabia, P-3C Orions MPA and the Fulcrum-Sukhoi barter deal.
“Yes we have heard about the deal with the Indian Air Force (IAF) for the Fulcrums but we have yet to be inform officially on the matter, ” he said when met at the service Innovation Challenge presentation ceremony at the Subang air base here yesterday.
He acknowledged that there was a recent visit by a group of IAF officers to RMAF bases recently but it had nothing to do with the Fulcrum deal. He said the visit was part of a regular interactions between the two air forces.
“It is part of the annual exchange programme between RMAF and IAF. We sent our officers there and vice versa.”
On the Orions offer, Affendi said it was not on the table as far as the RMAF was concerned just like the supposed deal for ex-Saudi fighter jets.
The deal for the ex-Saudi fighter jets was first announced by Defense Minister DS Hishammuddin Hussein last March. The minister had stated that the RMAF chief was to study the offer.
As for the Orions, Malaysian Defence had quoted RMN chief Admiral Kamarulzaman Baddarudin on the possibility of Japan donating them. As the Orions are in service with the Maritime Self Defense Force it likely that the offer went through the RMN instead of the RMAF. As to why RMAF has not been consulted on the issue is beyond me.
Japanese newspaper Nikkei Shimbun last week reported that Japan was changing its laws to donate the Orions for Malaysia.
As for the Fulcrum-Sukhoi barter deal, it was announced by the PM himself during his state visit to India in April.
So are we getting any of these things as reported? I believe in the case of the Japan Orions and Fulcrum-Sukhoi barter deal, its probably a matter of bureaucracy and also the silo mentality which left RMAF unconsulted.
And as usual the end-user will be the last to know. As for the Saudi deal, I am not sure whether it is going to happen or not. Many in the industry and armed forces are also having the same thoughts.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (18)
same old,same old.....government shove things to the army *heavy sigh*
mr marhalim, is there any news about M109 ?
funny how end user is always last to know..
Btw on the batter deal, maybe India should throw in some sweetener like a couple of brahmos missile
1. Orions.
Probably the deal is with the National Security Council/Navy people. Could ask them instead.
2. Fulcrum.
Yes the indians are interested, the air force general knows it. But still no official notification from the indian side. Well you know how indian snail-pace bureucracy and red tape works.
3. Saudi offer.
Itu kena tanya special task minister lah...
He just commented that there is no official confirmation, that itself does not mean he didint know anything about it. It just means he does not want to confirm it as he does not have any official "yes" for all the items. And probably also due to all those items are not what he wanted in the 1st place. Safe to say i am sure he was consulted about all of those things, but the final "yes" is not his decision, as those items have to be said "yes" by the other parties, the indians, japanese and saudis.
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It was the Utusan reporter who wanted to ask about the Orions as they had failed to get anything apart Daesh from the dual job minister
For Mig Sukhoi offer is still up to MINDEF & FINANCE to decide... they dun confirm the deal, they wont inform RMAF. I dun c direct impact because the MIG going to retire.
Saudi & Japan offer will be an issue if not inform RMAF to study the jets they going receive.
This is just normal politi-spik. He is only saying:
'Hold on to your horses. This is early days and nothing is happening just yet'.
And yes, Aus defence budget is going to be 2% next year. Economy is growing 4-5%, so can afford the new subs and frigates, but its also because of the right wing conservative (Liberal/National party coalition) govt.
Right wing governments in the Western world tend to spend more on defence ( e.g. Republicans like Trump vs left leaning Democrat like Obama).
My goodness,how's that the Minister of Defence doesn't talk to his group of generals and to keep them in the dark about what they are suppose to know in the very first place.that's not a very good way of administrating a ministry.
That's the real attitude of our gov@politician. Nak tunggu terhantuk baru nak tengadah.
Kerajaan terlalu menyembunyikan hal2 terkait ketenteraan dari pengetahuan awam...kalau hal2 senjata rahsia boleh la terima,ni sampai hal2 terkait deal pun nak rahsia..pe salah bagtau je hal.sebenar.xde duit ker,ape ker.. tak boleh ke buat institusi ketenteraan tu mesra rakyat sikit..setidak2nya,rakyat biasa terdedah la jugak dgn isu2 ketenteraan..jangan tolak tepi terus rakyat biasa..kalau sampaj waktu perang nanti,tau pulak nak rekrut kerahan tenaga..
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tak leh ke tukar blog ni guna bahasa...bukan pe,tak ramai orang luar join..sesama kita kan lebih baik guna.bahasa..boleh jugak tambah pengunjung...
jgn sampai org luar cungkil rahsia psl defence kita kat sini... udah ler... heh...
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Its all open source...