PETALING JAYA: Did you went to last year’s Lima and took pictures of the Eurofighter Typhoon? If you did and you are not a professional photographer, you may want to join the Typhoon Amateur photo contest. The contest is part of the Eurofighter promo and is being run together with one in Europe.
As the Typhoon is now being actively marketed in Malaysia, the contest had been extended to those who attended the Lima 2011 in Langkawi.
If you took the type of picture below you might snatched the first prize for the contest.
Here is a press release from BAE Systems:
Are you an Award Winning Photographer?
Did you visit the 2011 LIMA Air Show in Langkawi? Did you snap an awesome photo of Eurofighter Typhoon? Then you could be in with a chance of winning this year’s Eurofighter Typhoon Amateur photography competition.
The competition is open from the 9th March until the 31st August 2012.
The winning image will be featured in the 2013 Eurofighter Typhoon calendar, and the winner will receive a 1:48 scale Typhoon model and will be invited to sit on the 2013 judging panel. In addition, the top three photographs will be published in Eurofighter World magazine, on the www.eurofighter.com
A special category prize ‘The Panel’s Choice’ will again be awarded to the best young Typhoon photographer for entries from those under the age of 16.
Commenting on the competition lead judge Geoffrey Lee of Plane focus said: “This is a perfect platform to prove that amateur photography can indeed be extraordinary”.
This year’s winner will be announced during the ILA Berlin Air Show in September 2012.
Original images of Typhoon will be accepted from any amateur photographer by e:mail to communications @eurofighter.com
Eurofighter Communications,
Am Söldnermoos 17,
85399 Hallbergmoos,
Germany.
For further information about the terms and conditions of the competition, please visit the Eurofighter website: www.eurofighter.com
— Malaysian Defence
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I must make it known in the first instance that I am not against defence spending.
In fact I am a hawk when it comes to defence procurement.
However, what I am against is frivolous purchases that does not meet the country’s need and also purchase of items that is not wanted by the MAF. And the question that begs to be answered this round is -do we need to buy new fighters?.
This question has been much argued and many comments have been made. However, at times of economic stresses like now, we must learn how to make purchase decisions that best fit our economic situation. Why cant we buy second hand and upgrade?. Its much cheaper and many upgrade work can then be done here in Malaysia. The States would be decommissioning 200 planes and has actually started to do so.
The cuts affect many Warthogs-the A-10’s, C27J(the whole fleet in fact), C5A’s,F-16’s, F-15’s. Global Hawks, C-130H’s, Intelligence gathering aircraft.
Now is the time to buy those still in good condition especially many of them have just had a mid-life upgrade program too.
ymlee,
“Do we need to buy new fighters?”
Yes. The current inventory is woefully inadequate. If we are to provide a credible deterrent and to be able to respond effectively in times of need, we must acquire new fighters. You don’t buy insurance after an accident.
“Why can’t we buy second hand and upgrade?. It’s much cheaper and many upgrade work can then be done here in Malaysia.”
In the end it is not cheaper unless you get a lot of airframes with low flight hours. The cost of upgrading, especially if done locally by inexperienced companies, of a small number of aircraft with high flight hours, as ex-USAF aircraft most certainly would have, is very high. The Indonesians will spend an estimated $750 million USD to upgrade 24 ex-USAF F-16s (the F-16s are being provided for free, along with 6 more for spares only). That’s $31 million USD per aircraft, compared to $50 million USD for a new-build F-16. And those are just estimates, imagine what the real cost would be if we tried to do the same.
“The States would be decommissioning 200 planes and has actually started to do so.
…A-10′s, C27J, C5A’s, F-16’s, F-15′s, Global Hawks, C-130H’s, Intelligence gathering aircraft.”
There is no way we would ever get our hands on Global Hawks or any other sophisticated UAVS, or C4ISR aircraft. The A-10s have never been exported and it is unlikely that the US would do so. There are also efforts underway to save the A-10 fleet from the scrapper. C-5s are just too big and too expensive to operate. The C-27J is a nice aircraft (many of the same systems as the C-130J), but there is currently a major battle taking place between Alenia, the USAF, the US Army and Congress over the future of the aircraft and it is unlikely that the aircraft will ever be available for transfer. As noted above, regarding the high costs of upgrading high flight hours aircraft, the F-15s and F-16s are not a wise option. Of all the aircraft mentioned, if we could get some C-130s at a nice price, considering our local upgrade capabilities with that aircraft, that would be a good deal.
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Actually the Ministry has yet to make a credible case for a new MRCA programme and its other planned outlay considering the huge amount of funds needed.
The Hercules in the US inventory all worn out and that’s the reason they are buying the Js.
Before GWOT the US did not planned to recapitalise its Hercules force thinking it was not really suitable as the airframe was too narrow but did not developed a suitable tactical airlifter. The wars for the last decade had worn out the Hercules in US service and since the J is the only available replacement, hence the sudden frenzy to buy them.
How on earth BAE Systems expect to sell its Typhoon to Malaysia when they can’t even organize a simple photo competition for Malaysian photographers.Their people should be more proactive by announcing it before the LIMA event.I am sure many local amateur photographers feel disappointed for being short-changed by the BAE people.
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The photo contest if you read the release is organised by the Eurofighter consortium. The amateur photo contest was just launched in Europe on March 9. Since most of us would probably not get a chance to get pictures of the Typhoon, until this August (the deadline), I believe they decided to back date the photographs (for those who attended Lima) taken back in Lima last year, so I guess it was done by BAE Systems to accommodate people here and not to short change us.
ymlee,
“Do we need to buy new fighters?”
As FareedLHS stated the point The current inventory is woefully inadequate. currently we are able to protect peninsula effectively but not Borneo. We really needed at least a sqn @ Sabah and Sarawak. Also not to forget the current MMRCA to be precise to replace our Migs with the retirement of Migs fighter closing in certainly will create a gap in our Air defense.
A military procurement is a long and tedious process. it can’t happen over night. it takes years just to procurement high level military stuff like jet fighter, warship or LCS. These does not include training and logistic supports.
“Why can’t we buy second hand and upgrade?. It’s much cheaper and many upgrade work can then be done here in Malaysia.”
These would be depend both have their pros and cons.
buying 2nd hand stuff is cheap however only if you do not upgrade it. refurbish a jet fighter wont be cheap.
FareedLHS have pointed out.
another thing would be how long can that fighter able to serves.
as Jet fighter airframe have limited life cycle. I doubt it can goes further than 10years. A new aircraft however able to be service for at least 15years depend on the AF usage.
If we are going to get 2nd hand fighter I don’t think TUDM will go for F-16/F-15. as they favor F-18 the most. however I dont think their navy have any spare F-18 to sells as they themselves need a new fighter they even limit the buying of SH in favor of F-35.
A-10 is cheap and good for CAS however A-10 require total air dominance in order for them to go for mission. in other words you need strong AF to support your A-10s.
buying Global hawk will change the landscape of SEA military entirely I don’t US will allowed that. The only country in SEA being offer to buy is Singapore however they wont be buying as it will create huge problem for them as well in regional politics.
As for airlift we are going for upgrading our C-130 fleet. I doubt we will add any c-130. also A400M will be coming by 2015.
RSAF – they might get the global hawk. They have been interested in it for a long time. They have entire command on UAVs and already operates Hermes 450, Searchers, and most recently the Heron, which is about the size of a Predator 1 UCAV. Both Heron and Hermes can carry weapons too. In Singapore Airshow 2012, IAI displayed the gigantic Heron TP UAV which is about the size of the Global Hawk.
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I believe they will not since USAF is retiring them. There was talk of an Asian Global Hawk but I guess its gone now. Maybe they will proposed an Asian BAMS.