SHAH ALAM: I can see clearly now or not. Last year about the same time, more or less, Malaysian Defence wrote about a tender for 24 weapon carriers for the Army. The story

The first two advertisements – dated 27 Aug. 2019 and closing on 15 September – are for weapon equipped vehicles – one for Anti Tank Guided Weapon (ATGW) and the other for automatic grenade launcher. They are seeking 24 4X4 vehicles that could be fitted with the ATGW, AGL, HMG and also the 106mm recoiless rifle, for the 10th Para Brigade.

The tender – the winning bidder have not been announced yet – left an open question whether the Army also intend to buy a new ATGW systems for the weapon carriers. The current infantry batallion weapon carriers are the Mercedes G-Wagens, some procured CBU by Deftech and some CKDed by the same company in late 1990s. The ATGW system are the Metis-M bought in 2001, some 24 launchers and 100 missiles. The same G-Wagens are also armed with the automatic grenade launchers and heavy machine guns in the same units.

Earlier this year, I posted that the Defence Ministry had published an open tender for the supply of ATGW for the Army.

Anyhow the new 4X4 anti-tank guided weapon carriers being sought by the Army – will also have new weapons on them. The Defence Ministry published the RFB for the medium range ATGW on Jan. 24. The tender which is restricted will closed on February 18. I have no idea whether these will be replacing the Metis-M in service. It is likely though as those in service are already some 20 years old already.

A few weeks after the story was published, I was told that the Army wanted to buy Metis-M actually but due to the open tender policy – even if it was restricted – a competition must be conducted. As usual there was no further news about it – whether it was cancelled or the Metis-M had indeed been the winner.

Fast forward to 14 August, a check on the eperolehan website revealed a tender was called on 7 August, calling for the import of Metis-M missiles by qualified local companies, with 177 units being sought.

The name of the tender specifically stated:

Membekal dan Menghantar Peluru Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) Metis-M untuk Tentera Darat Malaysia (TDM)

There is a requirement to equip Anti-Tank Platoon in the Infantry Battalions with Anti-Tank Guided Missile – Medium Range (ATGM-MR) that capable to engage and incapacitate or destroy enemy armour at adistance of not less than 1,500 m. The ATGM – MR shall be able to engage the target during day or night with a high probability of hit (PH).

The words used on the tender document available on the eperolehan website is a bit confusing, so I am not sure whether it actually meant that they want to buy the missiles only or a complete system, launchers and missiles (excerbated by the fact that I am not purview to the full tender documents).

Probably its the latter though I must admit it could mean that its the former as the Metis-M1 launchers could already been procured courtesy of the 24 January tender. Of course they could only be looking to buy new missiles as they want to use the old launchers. So your guess is as good as mine. It must be noted that the latest variant of the Metis ATGW system is the Metis-M1. The new missile can be fired from 80 meters to 2000 meters, an improvement of some 500 meters than the old missile. It is also available with a thermobaric warhead (useful against bunkers and buildings) as well as the anti-tank version. There is no information whether the old launchers could be used with the new missiles.

— Malaysian Defence

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