BANGKOK: LIFT, MRCA and more. Far from the rain and humidity of Southeast Asia, RMAF long term plan has finally been articulated.
At a Berlin conference on Tuesday, a two-star RMAF officer offered a glimpse into its current situation and the service’s view of the future.
Here are some of the talking points and not at ad verbatim.
In the immediate term, it needs to get at least ten more F/A-18 Hornet airframes though it remained to be seen whether they will get them at anytime soon.
The general said that they were mostly looking at the Kuwaiti Hornets as this was the most closest in term of specifications to its own Hornets. Ten single seaters will do nicely
High-hour Hornets though available, are not desirable.
Another short term measure being look at is for the surveillance equipment onboard the three Beechcraft B200T be reinstalled on the CN-235s for them to serve as MPAs (As funding has not been announced we will have to see whether this will be done. ED)
Looking to the future, as the MRCA program has been shelved beyond 2020, the RMAF was looking at newer alternatives to the current offerings. He says they are looking beyond the 4.5 generation fighters.
As for the Hawks and MB-339s, the service is looking to replace them in a 15 year time period (likely the same time as the MRCA is selected ED). This should be in the TA/FA-50 class with two squadrons as the minimum.
On Monday, speaking to Malaysian journalists at the Defense and Security Exhibition here in Bangkok, RMAF chief Jen Affendi Buang says as the MPA program was just approved in the recent budget he cannot a give timeline for the purchase.
He says they have to work around the budget allocated which was RM2.6 billion. A technical group was being set up to determine the specifications of the MPA.
He likened the process of the MPA program at the moment as at “the merisik khabar” or the query stage before marriage. “We know the end stage but this is just the beginning”.
Asked whether it was reasonable to expect that the first MPA will be in service beyond 2020, Affendi says it was probable but it will be determined by when the allocation will be given.
He says an evaluation team was in Japan currently to inspect the P-3Cs offered to Malaysia.
Affendi says they have to decide whether it was worthwhile to put into service four 30-year old airframes even for a short time.
By coincidence, it must be noted that a JSMDF P-3C had undergone repairs at the Subang airbase recently. It flew in last week with another P-3C for an overnight stay.The other P-3C took off on schedule to Japan the next day but the other went un-servicable just prior to take off. The aircraft finally left for Japan earlier this week.
–Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (86)
Quick comments
- at last a logical, achievable target that is in tune with the governments budget.
- yes, please go for the kuwaiti hornets. Get all 36 (28 C, 8 D) to top up 18skn hornets and for the MiG-29 replacement. 16 C and 16(8+8)D model, with remaining 12 as reserve/spares.
- MPA. If want to go for cn235, go all out on that platform. Don't go piecemeal now 3x cn235 mpa, later add on a new platform. If now 3x cn235 with canibalised amascos from b200t, later add on more cn235 mpa conversions too.
- you cannot do 2 major projects at the same time. There could not be a MRCA and hawk/mb339 replacement at once. There would not be enough money for both. Do the lower cost hawk/mb339 replacement 1st in RMK12 (2021-2025), later the MRCA in RMK12 and RMK13. Im looking at usd 1.2-1.5 bilion for 36-40 aircraft hawk/mb339 replacement in RMK12, usd 3 billion for 5th gen MRCA in RMK13 (usd 1.5 billion) and RMK14 (usd1.5 bilion)
- lets continue to give constructive, well thought out comments, so that we can improve the defence of our country.
Thanks to the two-star officer in faraway Berlin, we now have a somewhat clearer picture on where TUDM is heading to for the next few years.It's a surprise however to know that the airforce intends to use the B200 search radars to be reinstall on the CN235s earmarked for MP duty.So,is that a temporary solution /stopgap before the purchase of genuine MPs or what?On the purchase of the MRCA I guess it won't happen in my lifetime and the intention of purchasing 10 Kuwaiti F/A18 to top up the present fleet is somewhat questionable as I don't think the Kuwaitis hv that many F/A18D but the C version,yes they hv those figures.
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I should make the post clearer, they want the Cs
Comments on the MPA
- RM2.6 billion equal to usd590 million. That is a lot of budget for just 4 MPA, but not enough for high end systems like the P-8 Poseidon.
- Germany is doing a major upgrade to its 8 P-3 Orion with new mission suites for just usd200 million. That can get the planes to fly up till 2035.
- You could probably get 10 C-295 MPA for that price.
- What does the air force want? A basic MPA with low operating costs or a full blown ASW and weapons capable bird?
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That's why they set up the technical group to determine what they want. Its too early in the game to even guess what they want. What ever it is, I believe it will be platform driven as most of the decision makers are or trained as pilots so they will look it what the platform they will be comfortable with.
I agreed. Getting as many as we can is good but we also need to refurbished them like the M109. An upgrade will go a long way to increase the years left on the Kuwaiti frames and mitigate risk of the "Skyhawk syndrome". We also need to consider the fact that most of the Kuwaiti Hornets are the single seater of which we had no experience with. Nothing that bit of training can't fixed though.
Personally, I think the MRCA is a greater requirement than LIFT albeit more expensive though. Would also be good to consider cheaper Asia models like the FA-50 (South Korea) or L-15 (China).
Wonder if any deal for Kuwaiti Hornets will included spare parts and armaments also? Any chance the Saudi or Kuwaiti will help us fund part of it?
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FA-50 is basically the same as the TA-50
Is Beechcraft B200T time to retire? or it can be service for another 10 years time? Convert existing 3 CN-235 to MPA is right move if you ask me...
If we accept Japan donation, we have four 30-year old airframes? that sound good...we in total have 10 airframes if Beechcraft B200T not retire.
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Not sure yet what will happen to the King Airs just yet
Why Don't RMAF Look at The Finnish F/A-18 as it has more Airframe than Kuwait.
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The Finns have not settled on their new fighters and those high hour as well
>500 million USD for 4 MPA, vow. Can even buy a few AWACs too!! The Malaysian government must be optimistic about the economy. By the way, oil prices are on a 2 year high, so maybe things will get better for M'sia.
Heh, glad to see my tax money going to the Malaysian urban warfare training centre:-).
mr ... "– You could probably get 10 C-295 MPA for that price."
if only RMAF goes that route. other mission suite/uprade can be done afterward.
it is good now we know what is RMAF want and plan. hopefully the Kuwait hornet and MPA can be acquire soon.
Good job Mr Marhalim, sniffing out that guy!
The desire to get 5th-gen aircraft though seems a bit ambitious. We bought the Sukhois practically at the height of Msia's economic growth and Russia's slump. While I agree buying Typhoon or Rafale in the 2025-2035 time period is uncomfortably close to those types' OSD, I'm not sure that there are 5th-gen fighters other than F-35 which are ready by then... and while I like the F-35, it is probably out of the question due to various political sensivities.
Also will the Sukhois be due for retirement by then? Seems we could well be recapitalising almost the entire frontline fighter fleet in that time period. Scary thought.
@ chua
By that timeframe the typhoon and rafale is at their end of production, rather than end of service.
There is a few 5th gen fighters in development, the FC-31, KFX, TFX, ATD-X. Of those, the FC-31 is arguably the closest to ready for production. By that time, china probably would be the biggest investor in malaysia, would be a major power in south east asia, and it would not be a bad thing if we are in very good books with china and fly the FC-31.
The sukhois would be 20 years old by then, probably ripe for a major MLU. With our standard low flying hours, probably good for another 20 years of service.