SHAH ALAM: Leonardo ATR MPA and TAI Anka. Senior Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein today announced that the government has selected the Leonardo ATR72 MPA and the Turkish Aerospace Industries Anka UAS to meet the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) requirements for both capabilities. Malaysian Defence posts on the MPA and MALE UAS
The selection was hinted in Malaysian Defence post on the 2023 budget. Hishammuddin hinted about the budget in his press release and social media posts. Malaysian Defence was told that the LOI for both the MPA and MALE UAS were already issued to both companies late last month.
Hishammuddin said the Defence Ministry was in the process of finalising the Letter of Award (Surat Serah Setuju Terima) pending final agreements among all the parties.
To boost the capabilities of the Army, he said that will conclude the procurement of the 136 Type A 4X4 (armoured) vehicles and various Type B (unarmoured) vehicles worth RM2.046 billion. Malaysian Defence was told the armoured vehicles are likely be the Mildef Rentaka 4X4 unveiled at DSA 2022.
With 136 armoured 4X4s already signed for, that leaves some 100 plus 6X6 to be contracted, to replace the Condors still in service with the Armoured Corps. I was told no funding has been allocated for the 6X6 requirements this time around, so it is likely this will be deferred to the next RMK.
Hishammuddin also said some RM2.4 billion has been allocated for the maintenance and upgrade of the RMAF F/A-18D Hornet fleet. At least one F/A-18D Hornet is undergoing a depot level maintenance and upgrade at the RMAF Butterworth airbase which is expected to be completed by year end. It is unclear what kind of upgrade was being conducted, however.
Hishammuddin also said some RM140 million has been allocated to provide “head to toe” equipment for the Army following complaints from soldiers on the quality of the gear issued. He did not elaborate but under the head-to-toe scheme, a single supplier will be chosen to provide all the equipment from head gear to boots.
The current Armed Forces practise is to source such all these gear from different suppliers. I was told small units of the military had already done this, but the most prevalent user of the head-to-toe scheme is the police’s General Operations Force. Hishammuddin also said some 50 ambulances will also be bought from the 2023 budget allocation though it is unclear whether this will be part of the vehicles purchased he mentioned earlier.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (82)
Wow, good news indeed.
"RM2.4 billion has been allocated for the maintenance and upgrade of the RMAF F/A-18D Hornet fleet"
300 million per aircraft? didn't it seems too expensive?
Those are not the best choices for a force with small development budget along with an even smaller operational budget.
With just 2 MPA and 3 UAV, plus a small operational budget, they are not going to fly much.
Those MPA also will have totally different operating SOP, so no crew and technical sharing with CN-235MSA. TUDM have to support a small fleet of 2 totally different everything from ground crew to spare parts.
ANKA is a large UAV. I don't think Indonesia will allow the ANKA to fly through its airspace from east to west malaysia. Can it be transported inside the A400M or C-130H? With just 3 airframes, crashing even 1 will make the whole system not operationally ready.
As I had reported before the Anka will be based at Labuan airbase
RM2.4 billion (or more than 0.5 billion us dollars) for upgrades of just 8 aircraft?
12 FA-50 is just 420 million us dollars
http://www.airforce-technology.com/news/newsphilippines-issues-release-order-for-fa-50-purchase-from-south-korea-4305629/
I really hope that amount is inclusive of Kuwait hornets + AESA radars.
Getting 4x4 and 6x6 IFVs are not going to increase our overall maritime security needs, which must be the ultimate priority for the near future.
All branch of the military will get their budget. if they don't use their budget you can bet they will have none next year. Also the army have pushed for both condor and sibmas replacement for some time
>Anka flying across Malaysia
The hell?
Kakadu - "With just 2 MPA and 3 UAV, plus a small operational budget, they are not going to fly much."
With proper planning with regards to taskings and proper engineering support they can fly as much we need them to...
Kakadu - "ANKA is a large UAV"
It is a MALE platform intended for strategic/theater level ISR; that's why we're getting it and that's why it's "large".
Kakadu - " With just 3 airframes, crashing even 1 will make the whole system not operationally ready"
Nonsense..... Losing 1 out of 3 will have a severe impact on our ability to generate and sustain a certain number of sorties at a certain tempo but will not " make the whole system not operationally ready" as you claim..
Zarif - "I really hope that amount is inclusive of Kuwait hornets + AESA radars"
I really hope that we can raise a Corps level combined arms armoured formation within the decade.
Zarif - "Getting 4×4 and 6×6 IFVs are not going to increase our overall maritime security needs"
You're stating the obvious but this is for an army requirement and stuff for our maritime domains are RMAF and RMN requirements. It do however believe that priority should be on the RMAF and RMN but that's a political issue.
On the subject of Anka not only is it an ISR platform and the TB2 a tactical armed platform; both for different things [despite some claiming we should buy TB2s instead] but it's interesting to see how the Turks employ them. During Operation Spring Shield; Ankas [equipped with a more comprehensive sensor load] detected targets and relayed the data to TB2s; both part of the kill chain.
Finally, something already confirmed. Now we all waiting for LCA. Just hope opposition will not make a topic for coming election. Everyone also face issue but our 1st line aldo facing shortage and old equipments for so many years.
RM2.046bil for 136 4x4 Type A and unarmoured Type B(quantity?) is incredibly expensive. What the unit price of the Rentaka? The opposition shall really look into it.
RM2.4bil or 500mil USD for upgrade for 8 F18Ds Hornets is also very expensive. We need more planes though so i hope the talk with US on the Hornets also include the matter of the Kuwaiti Hornets. If we buy it, we definitely need US approval but does the purchase have to go thru the US? If 420mil USD can get us 12 FA-50s, maybe we shall use the money to add more FA-50s instead.
I also think 3 ANKA UAS is incredibly small quantity despite the air force waiting so long for it. It is bigger than the TB2 Bayraktar but maybe we shall have gone for the TB2s if it means we can get more.
I am now wondering if the ATRs are going to be equipped with a MAD boom like to Turkish ones. Even the Italian Navy ones do not currently have this.
kakadu - ''TUDM have to support a small fleet of 2 totally different everything from ground crew to spare parts.''
That is unfortunate and I'm all for increased commonality but only if achieving commonality entails getting more of something which the user desires and which fits operational requirements. As it stands there are several issues with the CN-235 which the RMAF wanted rectified or wasn't too please with; thus the decision to go for the ATR-72.