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• The gov is going to continue beating round the bush until one day Sabah ends up in the hands of pinyos

• For FLIT/LCA deal, so many has been going on at Mindef. Biweekly presentation, high level discussions with ministers and suppliers, etc. Turkish and Indian jets are in highest consideration this time. Lets say we get Tejas (currently the no. 1 favorite according to few top level staffs I know at mindef), is this really a wise decision?

• Kecewa sungguh laa.. politician punya perangai kesian dekat end user.. ancaman dah nampak tapi dok tangguh2.. alasan bajet n so on.. time ekonomi kukuh dan ok, dok berbasa basi.. tengah down macam sekarang even ancaman tu dah nampak akan datang dari mana.. sori Tuan Marhalim, saya tak pandai nak tulis dalam bahasa inggeris tapi saya yakin yang sebahagian besar pembaca adalah boleh berbahasa Melayu... kecewa,, kecewa..

• So the GE this year looks imminent then. Hence the decision on LCA put on hold.

• One thing about getting a popular product, you get more upgrades paid for by somebody else. Since we also use our asset for such a long time, we get longer support due to longer end of life for the product.

  Buying a new to the world product like Tejas is such a high risk. It might suffer the same fate as the MIG29s

  • It might not be a popular product but the Tejas is a big ticket item for the Indian defence industry. I don't think they will want it to be a big embarrassment to the country. That said I don't think it really meets the requirements of the air force

• Like I said before, unfortunately Malaysia is a failing state that is not even capable of making a rather straightforward decision. Malaysia will be like Sri Lanka in 20 years if all this incessant bickering and child like behaviour by politicians continue.

• Kamal - "is this really a wise decision"

  Let me explain the reality to you : a lot of What we do isn't "wise"; driven by political imperatives.

  Until Tejas is actually ordered I won't say it's a done deal. Whether it's Tejas or anything else we need numbers; the platform has to have some level of commonality; it has to have growth potential; it has to be integrated with the needed ordnance and sensors and it has to be operated at a systems centric level.

  Tom Tom - "that is not even capable of making a rather straightforward decision"

  Incorrect.. It is "capable of making a rather straightforward decision" but whether it's the right decision is the question.

  James - "The gov is going to continue beating round the bush until one day Sabah ends up in the hands of pinyos"

  It's "pinoys" and in case you haven't noticed a claim and the actual ability to physically take something is profoundly different. Not only that but you may or not be aware but the Philippines has other pressing matters at hand. Rhetoric driven by politics and actual intent can differ somewhat.

• @James
  If between losing our poorest state that constantly faces external threats vs losing a USD $17Bil case thanks to a certain someone AG, I guess might as well just give it.

  @Kamal
  It is a political decision, one that Im guessing includes tradeoff for palm oil now that prices had suddenly crashed plus purchasing in RM denominative perhaps. It'll probably boil down to get either these or not buying at all, so if TUDM wants to play hardball they could do a TDM to spurn the buy and not have anything until they get what they wanted. Whether they can still operate effectively or not is another story.

  @Hasnan
  Ironically Mig29 is far more popular than any of these candidates and some users have far longer track record whom still using them compared to us.. So global popularity is not indicative that we will share in its good longevity. It all comes down to money & commitment, neither of these even an M4 rifle will breakdown and unreliable usage.

  @TomTom
  Your idea of a failing state is quite different from an economist POV but this is not an economic forum so I digress. You can read on Economist Intelligence Unit reportage.

  @Azlan
  There is no 'right' decision per se but the right decision is having enough money to fix all the screwups bound to happen just to make it work and keep it running.

• Incorrect. The "right" decision based on requirements, affordability, commonality and practicality. That's whAt I meant.

• Hasnan - "It might suffer the same fate as the MIG29s"

  The only reason we retired the Fulcrums early is because we did not want to overhaul the RD-33s. From the onset the low MBTF/TBO of the engines, gearbox, etc, was a problem for us - soaking up scarce resources. With others it was less of a problem because they were willing to meet the penalties or in some cases could or would not get Western platforms. They wanted to keep their Fulcrums flying; unlike us.

  An initial problem was that we bought it at a time when the Russian industry was in a chaotic disorganised state. We were used to dealing in a more transparent and reliable fashion with Western companies and we did not deal directly with the OEM but the Russian state arms export agency via the local rep with assistance from the Defence Attache. At times we'd sent a fax to Russia but an answer would take days because of language and bureaucratic issues - even the Indians which had decades of experience with the Russians encountered issues. During that period I did some minor brief work for the Russian Attache; the Russians were eager for business with us but their way of doing things was very different.