SHAH ALAM: India has offered to buy RMAF Mig-29 Fulcrums in exchange to supply Malaysia with spares for the Sukhoi Su-30MKM fleet.
Prime Minister DS Najib Razak said the offer was part of the defence cooperation agreement signed with India during his state visit. India according to him, will return the Fulcrums to service, most likely with the Indian Air Force.
From Bernama:
“India has stated its keenness to buy the MiG-29 aircraft from Malaysia and upgrade them for use by its air force.
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said the proposal was among the aspects of military cooperation agreed to by Malaysia and India.
In this matter, he said the Defence Ministry and the Royal Malaysian Air Force (TUDM) would look at the form of cooperation, including handling the Sukhoi aircraft and spare parts.
“There is a possibility too that they will buy our MiG 29 aircraft for refit. We reciprocate by accepting spare parts for our Sukhoi aircraft programme,” he told a media conference at the end of a six-day visit to India which started on March 30 in Chennai.
India is perhaps the only country that we could sell the Fulcrums without any difficulty. I was told that the Russian had an agreement with Malaysia that allow it to bar the resale of its arms – Fulcrums, Flankers or others. This is much like our agreement with the US over the resale of arms bought from them.
The agreement with Russia ruled out the transfer of the Fulcrum to almost every other country, apart from India of course. Russia will not want to get India angry over a minor detail like our deal. The Russian actually wants us to exchange the Fulcrums with new planes of course, but that is not going to happen anytime soon. And they also know this.
*edited to add the last two paragraphs.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (26)
so if we accept that, will we order all spare part for su30 from india or just certain part??having 2 supplier instead of 1..is that okay?
Reply
I believed only certain parts. As long as India got the license to manufacture the parts, I do not think the Russians will be unhappy unlike we buy them from China.
arent indian made spares have QC problem tho?
Reply
I have no idea
Our prayers have been answered!
Yes! Now we can rid off the Fulcrums to the IAF.
So what's next?
Reply
If its up to me the Sukhois...
@Marhalim - You want RMAF to rid itself off the Sukhois too?
Why?
Then we'd only have the Hawks & Hornets left.
Reply
If we get the MRCA and if it is not Super Hornets, we have to let go either the Hornets or Sukhois as well. Read my earlier post on RMAF 2020.
Additional infos to add to the discussion:
1) condition of malaysian fulcrums
” ” RAC MiG continues working with local companies involved in MiG-29N maintenance and support. As such, ATSC has gained access to the RMAF airframes and produced a fleet report. It describes the surviving hardware as remaining in good condition, making lifetime extensions and upgrade options viable. Few airframes have exceeded 2,000 flight hours, and their maker has offered a lifetime extension to 6,000 hours and 40 calendar years ” ”
2) what i was hoping for:
" "Why not we offer to India the low houred MiG-29N plus some palm oil in exchange of 6 used Su-30MKI that could be converted into a MKM version.
India could use some MiG-29 as attrition replacements, and could easily replace those MKI given to malaysia by new build MKI from HAL (which has additional MKI orders to keep the indian production line open up till 2020). " "
What da..
That either a lot of spares-parts!..or is our Migs really isn't worth nothin.
I hope it not another LMS episode in the making..
At least we can see that there is an established air force that sees value in used aircrafts. If india is comfortable with it, why can't malaysia?
Thanks Marhalim. The RMAF 2020 is a good read.
Now, Kuwait currently has 39 Hornets out of 40.
32 C model (one seater) & 8 D model (two seaters).
Ours is D model (two seaters).
Do we get to choose which model? C or D or nasi campur?
and the # the Kuwaitis are donating to us ala Russia with Serbia.
Nice of Ruski to donate 6 Mig Fulcrums to Serbia (Serbia just had to pay for upgrades etc).
Can we do the same?
To get 8 Kuwait D models to complement our 8 D models so becomes 16 max (a full squadron) & 18 Kuwait C models for our Fulcrum pilots.
What say you Marhalim, Azlan and Mr. 3 dots (...)
@ melayu ketinggalan
I don't think they are "donating" those hornets. But if we have to buy them the price should be reasonable too.
Kuwait has done this before. In 1997 they sold their 23 a-4ku skyhawks (among the last to be built in 1979, low houred and maintained dilligently) for usd70 million to the brazilian navy.
What we could do is buy all of the available kuwaiti hornets, those D models going to 18 skn, and the single seaters to 17skn. As the hornets are marinised and does not mind placed near the sea, probably the single seaters could be located in labuan instead of the hawks. Extra hornets could be used as rotations for those that needed servicing, as attrition spares (future) or urgent spares source (aka christmas tree)
Question: Why are we having problems with Fulcrum when other countries are not?