SHAH ALAM: Malaysia has signed the deal for the procurement of UK-made, Thales Starstreak V-Shorads, ahead of the official visit of the British Prime Minister on Thursday.
Industry sources told Malaysian Defence that the deal involved Global Komited Sdn Bhd which will supply the GM-M1 vehicles and Thales UK, the producer of the Starstreak V-Shorads. The deal will also include light weight multiple launchers, radars and command and control system.
The deal is reportedly worth around RM500 million though numbers of missiles and launchers procured are unknown.
Global Komited, a subsidiary of Weststar Group and Thales signed the agreement to market the Starstreak system to the Malaysian Armed Forces at DSA 2014.
The Starstreak will replace the Thales Starbust V-Shorads which had been used in the air defence of military bases. GAPU requirements for a similar system and MR-SAM, however, have yet to be fulfilled.
As the signing today is for the LOA, the LOI for the deal would have been signed much earlier but was kept under wraps until today.
David Cameron, the UK PM will be in Kuala Lumpur Thursday for a 12 hour visit, the last leg of his South East Asia tour and the first to the region since his recent re-election.
The Starstreak deal is the only defence item procured during the visit. As of Aug 2, no official announcement of the deal have yet to be made by the parties involved in the deal apart from an Instagram photo and caption published by Weststar Group (above).
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–Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (49)
woow..surprise deal... i expect this deall will happen earlier during Tun M / Tun B times but it never...
any idea the quantity? just for ATM? how about RMAF and RMN?
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As mentioned it will be for military bases, most of those are with RMN and RMAF
I hope that the government will but the mbda camm-er missile for lcs and medium-range sam requirement. Have a common missile will reduce the operating cost in the armed forces. Just my sekupang. Rather than choosing between the short range vl-mica and the essm that can only be used by ships.
And anyone had ever read about a russian missile being used with thales radars in an export variant of a russian ship?
How much we spend for the starstreak system Mr. Marhalim? Why don't we just buy the jernas system, The Army already operated the jernas,Or why don't we buy another system like Bamsee from sweden or crotale NG from france..more longer range compared to starstreak system if im not mistaken.
Just my 2 cents.
Finally.
Now the 2 RMAF and RMN units that stood down when Starburst was retired can find purpose again. The deal for Starburst involved some 48 LMLs; wonder how many we bought this time around.
The bad news is that beam riders are more expensive than IR missiles, harder to gain proficiency and require crews to have more training but the good news is that until today, the majority of aircraft out there are not equipped to deal with beam riders.
I've always felt that instead of going for 54 Ingwe AV-8 variants that we should have halved it and also ordered a AD AV-8 variant with a Starstreak launcher and alerting device. Not sure how true it is but I've been told that the IR alerting device does not get along with our humidity.
It's already 30 July 2015...... no news about 30mm AV8 Gempita. But it's okay, i don't blame the government for delay deliver the 30mm AV8. Anyway, i hope those Interpol and Investigator squad quick find that missing RM42 billion.
Not connected. It was printed in the latest air international magazine that the rmaf chief announced that our mrca programme is dead. Instead the migs will be upgraded with new radars , digital avionics n airframe will be upgraded to 6000 flying hours from the current 4000.
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Must be a redo of the NST story..
All this confusion about the MRCA is surely not good for our reputation. One minute Rafale, then the next Migs to be upgraded.
Ridiculous!
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If you want to believe those stories of course..
No, it not a question of wanting to believe or not.
Lack of reliable information leads to rumours and speculation, so an honest clarification is what is really needed.
Hope its not just the LML, but something like RapidRenger with auto cueing from radar.
I have tried the starburst simulator. The missile recoil during the simulated launch was very realistic. Yes it was very2 difficult to track the target with a tiny toggle with your thumb. And it all lasts for about 5 seconds. It is only viable for targets heading directly towards or away from you. Nearly useless against targets crossing in front of your face.