SHAH ALAM: Is it the Turkish Anka UAS? The Dewan Rakyat was told today that the RMAF is expected to acquire the Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) Unmanned Aerial System in 2025 with operations commencing in 2026. Bernama reported that the Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz saying that
the Ministry has completed all tender evaluation processes to acquire MALE UAS for use by the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) to strengthen Malaysia’s dominance of air domain.
He said the ministry’s procurement board had certified the selected tenderers and submitted them to the Ministry of Finance on July 7 and the final decision would be known this month.
For the maintenance ecosystem, it will be implemented after the expiry of the warranty period from the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) based on the maintenance concept that will be determined by RMAF.
“The procurement of weaponry including Electronic Warfare (EW) for these assets will be carried out in the second and third procurement phases in the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP) and 16MP,“ he said in response to a question by Ahmad Tarmizi Sulaiman (PAS-Sik) regarding the status of the tender, procurement, maintenance for MALE UAS aircraft for RMAF use during the question and answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.
As from the story, we know the Deputy Defence Minister did not name the UASs selected but instead had submitted the list to the Finance Ministry, which will make the final decision. It remained unclear when the contract will be signed. I was told much earlier by industry sources that the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) Anka and the Leonardo Falco Evo had been down selected for final consideration from a number of bidders which include the AVIC Wing Loong UAS. They had even gone to Turkey earlier this year to conduct a physical evaluation of the Anka. This was separate from the official visit of the PM last month.
But from the bold paragraph above in the story, one may assume that there was time for a final lobbying effort from all bidders as the Finance Ministry hold the final decision on the contract. And as the contract is going to be signed the latest by late 2023 (with delivery commencing in 2025), they got a long time to do it. It must be noted that ten companies responded to a RFI on MALE UAS put forward in 2019. As they say, its not over until the fat lady sings. Especially with a general election to be held by mid of next year or before the contract signing.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (37)
Given the political angle I would extremely surprised if Anka wasn't selected. It also happens to be a sound ISR platform. What I'm curious however is how it compares to its competitors with regards to the CPFH and number of maintenance hours needed for every flight; plus the number of hours the airframe and other components have.
There is a report that 3 systems are to be acquired. How many drones are in a system?
No lah, only one system, with 3 UAVs
Tom Tom,
The actual platform [whether called a "drone, "UAV" or previously;"RPV"] when included with the ground gear constitutes a "UAS".
Why aren't the air force consider the much more successful bayraktar UAV?
AFAIK it wasn't offered for the tender. Likely it was a deal between the two Turkish companies from going against each other in the same competition.
Anka-S is larger than TB-2 (which is technically a tactical UAV/UCAV) whilst the Akinci is a large HALE UAV
There's no issues about getting both Anka and Bayraktar as they fill different purpose, although a better alternative is to come up with armed version of Aludra UAV
The consortium that made Aludra has long shut down...that's the reason there is no more version of the Aludra. Deftech tried to do it on their own but so far Mindef has not bite. Buying two type of UAS is a wet dream for all agents, a bad idea really for our cash strapped forces
I reckon the Anka should be the top choice rather than the Falco. If you believe Wikipedia, the Falco cannot be armed. At least with the Anka, there is the option of using it as a UCAV if the need ever arises, plus the option of progressing into HALE drones from TAI eventually. Turkish smart munitions from Roketsan are battle proven.
Alex,
The requirement is for a ISR platform. The TB2 is a armed UAS and I wouldn't say it's more "successful" merely that more have been sold compared to Anka and even before the Ukraine war it was making the news. At the moment we have a pressing need for a ISR UAS to watch over our maritime domain; not an armed UAS.
Bayraktar is practically a TUAV, a much cheaper one at that compared to Anka. Buying Anka and hoping it will be jack of all trades for our surveillance needs would be more wasteful, especially if one crashed
Philippines bought 2 different version of Hermes, one for long range maritime surveillance and the other for more terrestrial/coastal need for COIN.
In Malaysian context, a TUAV would be useful in ESSZone, a much cheaper option than to station a MSA when they could be used to monitor SCS and Malacca Strait
I would love to see three squadrons of long range/tactical UAS in service as well but I am well aware that the government is huffing and puffing to buy even one system with three aircraft