LANGKAWI: Airod Sdn Bhd will be the prime contractor for the Hawk upgrade program. The letter of intent will be officially signed this morning, the last trade day of LIMA 17.
Other contracts will also be signed at the same ceremony – worth some RM9 billion according to DPM DS Zahid Hamidi – including the maintenance contract for the Sukhois, with ATSC. Others may include the LMS and MMEA OPV deal which are well known already.
Anyhow, for the Hawk upgrade, Airod will be working with BAE System to upgrade the avionics systems and also the self defensive systems. Unfortunately, the Hercules upgrade remained on hold.
Due to the budget crunch, the work will be carried out in stages within four years. And the final number to be upgraded has yet to be confirmed as initially only the single seat Mk 208s were supposed to be involved. It has not been decided whether some of the twin seaters will be upgraded as well.
Anyhow, Colonel Masro Kaliwon, the CO of 22 Squadron, says they expect to start trials of air-to-air refueling by the end of the year.
He confirmed that externally the fourth A400M was the same as with the other three aircraft. The upgrade to tactical configuration which allow AAR and others are mostly software based.
Finally for …viewing pleasure below are the close up shots of the LMS model displayed by CSSC at the aerospace segment (which explained why I did not see at the maritime segment).
The model is also displayed at the Boustead booth on both segments depending on the VIP scheduled to visit it. I was told that the LMS will be fitted fully with China made systems including the engines.
Bosutead is hoping that it can fit other systems on the follow-on ships to be entirely made at its facility in Lumut.
— Malaysian Defence.
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The lms looks more like a coast guard patrol craft rather than a real warship. Unless the navy opts similar configuration like the kedah class fitted for but not with.
No more MTU or Caterpillar for the engine? This is interesting..
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It will be a Chinese made MTU
“…single seat Mk 208s were supposed to be involved.Anyhow, Colonel Masro Kaliwon, the CO of 22 Squadron, says …”
Are we missing something here? From Hawk then all the sudden to Atlas.
Senjata utama NGPC dan KM Pekan ada tak kat sana? And any news about MRCA?
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NGPC punya ada booth Aselsan, tapi tak pasti KM Pekan akan dipasang dengan meriam
Finally, the photos of the LMS. Yes agreed that the look of it is “Plain Jane” but the amount of space available thus highlight the type of “things” maybe fitted including weapon module.
The biggest stumbling block at the end will be $$ to develop and acquire the modules.
A 57mm gun would have been better than the 30mm gun. It looks so small in that location.
Thank you marhalim for the LMS pictures!
Btw is saab still lobbying hard for the MRCA program? With the gripen on show i assume they still are.
Anyway just look at the powerful performance of the t-50b black eagles. Look past the “trainer” tag, and you can see that it is as capable performance wise as the gripen at a fraction the cost of the already low priced gripen c/d.
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They are but I did not go for their press conference as I clashed with my schedule