SHAH ALAM: RMAF assets purchase is not delayed by the change of the government, says its chief Gen Asghar Goriman Khan today. He was quoted as saying this by Bernama the national news agency.
From New Straits Times:
SEREMBAN: The change in government will not cause a delay in the procurement of new assets for the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF), said RMAF chief General Tan Sri Mohd Asghar Khan Goriman Khan.
He said the buying of maritime patrol aircraft, unmanned aerial systems, fighter lead-in trainers/light combat aircraft (FLIT-LCA) and air defence radars was in progress.
He said the letter of agreement (LOA) for the procurement of maritime patrol aircraft and unmanned aerial systems was signed on Oct 25 and price negotiations were ongoing.
“For the procurement of FLIT-LCA, the papers are with the Finance Ministry and we are waiting for approval,” he said after presenting awards at the RMAF Service Excellence Awards at the Sendayan Air Base.
Asghar Khan said medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial systems (MALE-UAS) were important to enable the RMAF to carry out intelligence surveillance reconnaissance effectively and efficiently across a wide area.
“The MALE-UAS that we will buy or have signed (LOA) to buy is the Anka aircraft from Turkiye.
“This week, we (RMAF) were in Turkiye to look at the contract and the progress of the aircraft.”
He said as outlined in the Defence White Paper, a large swathe of territorial waters that stretch to the Exclusive Economic Zone needed tighter surveillance and the use of aircraft or UAS drones.
At the awards ceremony, Lieutenant-Colonel Khairul Anuar Addeli and Major Fairul Mohd Rustham received the Flight Safety Award, the Royal Malaysian Air Force Academy in Ipoh received the Best Quarters of the Year and Best Training Institute of the Year awards and the 14th Squadron took the Squadron of the Year award.
Asghar Khan presented a Certificate of Appreciation to officers and members of the Central RMAF Band for their excellent performance at the Gyeryong World Military Culture Expo in South Korea from Oct 7 to 15
–Malaysian Defence
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Not related, but what happened in Thailand is a worry. Many of the RMN ships are even older than 1987 and reportedly waves were ‘3 to 4’ meters (sea state 3 to 4, I believe, which is nothing) when the ship sank. We are lucky nothing major has happened to the RMN…maybe not yet..considering the age of our ships.
We had one of the CBs getting lost due to bad weather three to five years back. The only ship AFAIK we lost at sea due to weather was one of the original Kedah class in the late 70s or early 80s in the SCS. The ship captain was court martialed but he was found not guilty as I believed he or others had warned the ship was not fit for duty but was ordered to follow orders and ship out.
With anwar being buddies with Erdogan hopefully we can get access to the new stealth bayraktar HALE/UCAV at a friendly price. Should be a good alternative to getting 5th gen aircraft for the moment as the focus in on beefing up existing hornet number as well as getting the FA-50 for both training and dealing with PLAAF shenanigans
The weather was bad that day. The XO of Kelewang [whichis was in the area] is a friend. He said it was so bad that everything not bolted was upside down and the bridge including the wheel; was covered with vomit. Like with the FACs we used the Kedah, Keris and Sabah for conditions they weren’t intended. For those who remember many years ago a few RMN men in a RHIB went missing off
Layang Layang and were never found.
Another friend was the CO of Sotong. Once it was hit by bad weather on the way to Sabah. They did a head count and found one missing; the fear was he went overboard. The CO was about to inform Lumut when the missing man was found passed out in a life boat.
Alex,
Are you sure the “focus” is really on getting the Hornets? Also, Erdogan is “buddies” with a lot of people and one doesn’t have to be “buddies” with anyone to get something; merely to be serious about buying something. Sellers will only give “friendly” prices to buyers who commit to buying a certain number; not one who buys a mere handful and who may never buy anymore.
Alex “With anwar being buddies with Erdogan hopefully we can get access to the new stealth bayraktar HALE/UCAV at a friendly price”
There’s no such thing as a free lunch and whatever gift the US showered us is not out of the kindness of their hearts.
They aren’t doing it out of some extract values like friendship, democracy etc etc. Everything any government did is base on cold hard calculations to maximize their own national interest.
Good enough for the time being,
Military procurement not being politicised
Zek MR -”Military procurement not being politicised”
An attempt at humour? Military procurement is and always will be politicised; how selection is performed; how funding is allocated and which local companies get contracts. It’s also part of the patronage system…
Yes, even those so called military aids for Iraq after the invasion were charged by Uncle Sam ..doubt those military hard gears and trainings for the Ukranians is FOC ..use now pay latter …
No lah, the ones for Ukraine are actually FOC. As for Iraq, some are aid some are paid by the Iraqi government
Mofaz,
No.. Various things sent are free by law and the Ukrainians do not have to ” pay later”. It’s in line with the self interests of various countries to enable aid to the Ukrainians. Note the the Ukrainians have ordered things separately by themselves.
@mofaz
The American through the military & economics assistance to Ukraine, had mostly get what they had always wanted from isolating Russia economy from the global system to forcing European to stop taking russian gas, justify fracking at home while having their European partner to take defense more seriously.
The cost of military assistant would ultimately pale in comparison to the economics value it would generate.
Zaft – “There’s no such thing as a free lunch and whatever gift the US showered us is not out of the kindness of their hearts”
It’s fully in line with their own interests for us to have certain capabilities; especially given how tight fisted we are and how underesourced the MAF is. Just like how it’s in the interests of Japan that the MMEA be given stuff to better safeguard the Melaka Straits. Not everything comes with strings attached.
“The cost of military assistant would ultimately pale in comparison to the economics value it would generate.” ..wars have economic values ..hell then let go to war because we sure need economic values..
Well, it depends really, the war already caused an economic recession on some countries due to higher fuel and food prices.
“the ones for Ukraine are actually FOC”
Well not exactly. I watched a utuber followed closely on the Ukraine war and he elaborated that of the USA $54Billion military aid going to Ukraine, $9Bil is for US to replenished weapons & munitions they ‘donated’ to Ukraine, $8Bil is to pay for US intel gathering efforts (aka spywork), $4Bil is for redeploying more US Forces to Europe, $9Bil is to prop up Ukraine’s economy vis a vis continued good relations to USA, $8Bil is for food, healthcare & other aids provided for by US companies, and $4Bil is for Ukraine to buy US weapons in the future. So it only left $12Bil for Ukraine to freely get munitions & spareparts for their Russia/Soviet type weapons & vehicles. The bulk $42Bil is actually to support the USA defence infrastructure to support the Ukraine. All paid for by the US taxpayers so it isnt exactly FOC.
They already done SLEP on the older smaller ship (which include rehull, engine replacement et centera) so while the ship might appear be older than the Thai ship that was sunk not too long ago, they’re practically a new ship
I remember when ADJ ran a report on the handover of the Ratanakosin class. It was the first and only one in the region armed with the very expensive but capable Stingray torp. It was offered to us by Marconi for use by the Lekius.
While we’re still talking about free stuff from daddy america, how about asking them for a couple of E-3 Sentrys? They’re in the midst of replacing them with Wedgetails and this could give RMAF a potent AEW capability on the cheap, relatively speaking
All old aircraft with high maintenance costs
@dundun
“RMAF a potent AEW capability on the cheap”
I have before brought up about getting free EDA recently retired E-2C Hawkeyes now that USN are replacing them with D models. Since even SG uses E2 we dont need so high end like E3.
The E3s and E2s are old and high mileage; part of the reason why they are or have been retired [the RSAF replaced it with Gulfstreams]. Even brand new the E-3 has high operating costs. They would be a nightmare for anyone else to operate; especially an air arm with a shoe string budget and limited resources. One that also has barely enough to sustain what little is has and is very wary of used and aged but highly maintenance intensive platforms.
dundun – ”this could give RMAF a potent AEW capability on the cheap,” To be fastidious; is there any AEW platform which isn’t ”potent”?
Sure, those bidan terjun mini AEW like what MKM is doing every now and then?
E-3 is potent not only due to its radar, but also just from it being a large plane that could travel farther, travel for longer time, doesn’t have to do that awkward S maneuver like Erieye (which is the only alternatives we have since Phalcon and C295AEW is off the table for some obscure reason best left unmentioned) and could double as control centre instead of simply extending radar coverage.
E-2 is good enough for carrier fleet or small countries like Singapore. It’s one tier above helicopter AEW but not much more. So unless we pretty much resigned to operate E-2 out of labuan we should look at other options
If we going to ask father Christmas for something better ask them to foot the bill for a wedgetail conversion rather than an E2 because MAS do has more 737 then what they needed.
But then again RMAF has a long shopping list and something like more LCA,MRCA, radar, medium to long range air defence and even helo is more of a priority compared to a AEW.
RMAF shopping list
– LCA/LIFT – Yes need 100% from budget
– Radar – Yes need 100% from budget
– MERAD – to save cost, get common missile with LCS Gowind.
– Helo – get used. ex-MHS EC225LP or any used O&G EC225LP add to RMAF fleet. Current market price of EC225LP is around 7-10 million USD each. Have used Blackhawks for PUTD fleet. Buy outright no leasing shenanigans.
– AWACS. We could buy a fleet of those for the same budget we bought 12 of those supposedly CSAR-spec EC725 Caracals (USD656 million). Not buying new helo will free enough budget to get AWACS.
”hulubalang” – ”We could buy a fleet of those for the same budget we bought 12 of those supposedly CSAR-spec EC725 Caracals (USD656 million). Not buying new helo will free enough budget to get AWACS.”
The ”supposedly CSAR-spec EC725 Caracals” were actually intended to be NH90s for which there was intent to get before the Cougars were signed for but was placed on the backburner when we went down the Cougar route following the Genting Nuri crash.
On CSAR or even SAR platforms ; at one point they were distinguished by having a FLIR; winch, NVGs, NVG compatible cockpits and self defence suites, etc but we’ve reached a stage where those are common to current gen platforms. Thus in theory the Cougars are capable of CSAR on a platform level; the problem is we lack the other needed enablers in order to perform CSAR in contested airspace.