SHAH ALAM: The government today awarded the Letter of Award to Thales SA of France for the supply, delivery and commissioning of a single long-range radar. According to Defence Minister DSU Mohamad Hasan the Thales GM400 radar will be installed in Bintulu, Sarawak.
The LOA presentation was conducted at the Defence Ministry today in the sidelines of the Malaysia-France Defence Joint High Strategic Committee (DJHSC) meeting. Mohamad represented Malaysia while French Armed Forces Minister Sébastian Lecornu attended for France.
Mohamad did not reveal the contract price but at LIMA 23, Thales was awarded the LOI of RM170.6 million for one unit of 3D air defence long range radar complete with ancillary equipment, associated support and design and infrastructure. Recently, Mohamad told Parliament that Thales will also supply the radome for the radar. Previously, the radomes were sourced locally.
RMAF already operate one Thales GM403 radar, purchased a dozen years ago and now currently operating it at Gunung Ngili in Kota Samarahan, Sarawak. Story on the Thales radar earlier.
Despite this, in a recent Parliamentary session,
Pendang MP Datuk Awang Hashim questioned why the Defence Ministry chose Thales for the RMAF long range air surveillance radar contract stating the competitor had offered lower price in the tender. The MP did not identify the lower price radar, though.
Mohamad Hasan responded by saying that the ministry was not bound to choose a lower price product in its tender process. He stated further that the Thales radar was selected by the end-user mainly due to commonality with an already service one.
The tender for the single radar was published in June, 2021. The tender was
FOR THE SUPPLY, DELIVERY, TESTING AND COMMISSIONING OF ONE (1) UNIT OF 3D AIR DEFENSE LONG RANGE RADAR (LRR) COMPLETE WITH ANCILLARY EQUIPMENTS, LRR ASSOCIATED SUPPORTS AND DESIGN & BUILD OF INFASTRUCTURES TO THE ROYAL MALAYSIAN AIR FORCE (RMAF) AND THE GOVERNMENT OF MALAYSIA
As noted above, the contract also included the design and built of the infrastructure of the radar facility. When they bought the radar for Kota Samarahan the contract did not include the funds for the infrastructure, which were finally completed a few years back.
— Malaysian Defence
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Interesting change of location.
Just a few months ago MENHAN mentioned in the parliament that the new GM400 alpha is to be installed in Bukit Lunchu.
BTW Indonesia is also buying GM400 alpha’s, but unlike Malaysia they are buying wholesale 13 units at one go.
As I mentioned already it will be at Bintulu, while the US one at Labuan. The people I spoke at LIMA, some of whom were involved in the tender all said Bintulu so that’s that. Bukit/Gunung Lunchu can wait. Surely we are not expecting waves of F-16s from down south.
Indonesia has a large territory to cover. I bet even with that 13 will not be enough. Interesting the military think to install it at Bintulu.