LANGKAWI: Mica deal delayed, yet again. The government will not signed the contract for the MBDA MICA surface to air missiles at LIMA 2019.
The contract for the missiles meant for the six LCS is unlikely to be signed until the proposed boycott on palm oil by the EU is scrapped, I was told.
As Malaysian Defence reported previously the LCS builder, Boustead Naval Shipyard had already signed the contract for the launchers with MBDA.
The deal for the missiles must be signed between the governments of Malaysia and France, however. This is the same for the Kongsberg NSM deal.
Unfortunately, the MICA deal, was delayed due to various reasons and negotiations were continuing until this year. Negotiations, I was told, was cancelled as it was apparent that the palm oil ban may well be enforced.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (47)
So does this mean goodbye to any large french deals from now on?
Any plan b for this?
How about CAMM? (ironically still from MBDA but this time UK/Italy)
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I have been told that they looking at a few things but the problem is that the MICA has been baked into the LCS so it will be more costly to put in something comparable.
UmKhomto IR? but will cost a bomb to undo the MICA wiring in the LCS
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Not just the wiring but the plumbing and other things
bought the launchers but no missiles to fire.hmm should put aside differences and sort it out.i hope there would be win win situation.otherwise might as well sell those ships to other country or barter them for something similar..if all fails...just load them with coconuts...all the best RMN.
What type and model of launcher that had been purchased? Other than MICA, are there any alternative SAM that is compatible with the launcher?
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None
If the launcher deal is for the SYLVER, it can be used to launch CAMM.
https://www.mbda-systems.com/?action=force-download-attachment&attachment_id=16339
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAMM_(missile_family)
The government is hoping that France will use its influence within the EU to cancel or ease off the ban. Not easy as even if France wishes to do so; there are internal EU politics at play and France has its own interests to watch out for.
Whilst we may stop buying EU stuff, we will still have to buy spares for the many EU stuff we already operate, that’s a situation we can’t escape from. It’s a question of who suffers more in the long run and who will be the first to back down. If it continues, the MAF will suffer if we make flawed decisions by buying stuff (stuff that might not suit our specific requirements and stuff we normally wouldn’t buy) as alternatives to buying EU. MBDA incidentally is partly British owned.
.....: - “so does this mean goodbye to any large french deals from now”
Well BAE Systems and companies from Russia, China and Pakistan are certainly hoping this happens. A bit early days however.We’ll just have to wait and see how things stand months from now.
The same message from Tun about we going to replace Nuri with mi-171
"So does this mean goodbye to any large french deals from now on?"
We still have a very healthy order of Airbuses and getting healthier with the 737 fiasco. So nope. We still do business when it suits us. Otherwise its just another political upmanship. Expect our glorious Government to back down with their tail between the legs.
@ azlan
"Well BAE Systems and companies from Russia, China and Pakistan are certainly hoping this happens"
There could be items from UK that would fulfil our needs, but is there any interesting stuff from BAE to fulfil any of our requirements for now?
LCA/FLIT? Nothing. Hawks are too weak for many such as the recent USA T-X competition.
MRSS? No models in its range that is suitable.
MALE UAVs?
MPAs?
IMO the surefire way for any defence company to get a contract from us now is to publicly announce their willingness to accept palm oil as part payment of the equipment :)