SHAH ALAM: In March, Malaysian Defence posted on two separate quotation notices for the procurement, delivery, and supply of two “high end military watercraft” or HEMW for brevity, for its special forces unit – Paskal.

The watercraft – one each – is meant for the Paskal units based in Lumut and Semporna, Sabah, respectively. A month after the two notices were published, another two notices for the HEMW were published in Eperolehan, two for KD Panglima Hitam (the headquarters of the Paskal in Lumut) and two for Eastern Fleet Command at the RMN Kota Kinabalu. As there is a Paskal detachment at the Eastern Fleet Command, I assumed the two HEMW were meant for them. And usual the public specifications of the HEMW does not reveal anything about them.

This means that the Paskal units in both the Western and Eastern fleets have two HEMW each, with the Semporna detachment attached to Joint Command Headquarters, which in turn is subordinated to ESSCOM, one.

Checks with Eperolehan website, yesterday, revealed that the contracts for the four notices have been awarded to a single company, Protouch Engineering Sdn Bhd. A Google search showed the company is based in Lumut in Perak.

For the two HEMW being delivered to KD Panglima Hitam and Eastern Fleet Command, the LOA are both listed as RM499,600 while the single HEMWs is listed as RM270,000 each. It is interesting to note a Google search on an item listed on one of the notices showed that the HEMW is actually a two-seater jet ski, likely the Seadoo GTX 300 put on trials during LIMA 2023. At LIMA 2023 the jet skis were fitted with an LMG for the back seater.

Meanwhile, only two out of seven items sought by Paskal also in March have been awarded the contracts. They are grapnel launchers and hydraulic cutters, both to Arus Samudera Sdn Bhd with an LOA of RM115,400, and RM70,000, respectively.

— Malaysian Defence

If you like this post, buy me an espresso. Paypal Payment