KUALA LUMPUR: No to the AV8. The story below from Bernama is self-explainatory. If you read through you will noticed that none of the Army requirements was important enough to justify the procurement of the AV8. Our polls respondent of course disagreed with us funding DRB-Hicom financial well-being.
Purchase Of Local-made APC Benefits The Country
KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 (Bernama) — The government’s plan to purchase 257 units of eight-wheel-drive armoured personnel carriers (APCs) from a local company, DRB-Hicom Defence Technologies Sdn Bhd (Deftech), will benefit the country in terms of developing the local defence industry.
Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told the Dewan Rakyat today the plan was in line with the government objective of enhancing the capacity and expertise of local defence-related companies.
He said the technology and systems developed by other companies previously could also be applied in the production of the APCs.
“In negotiating the purchase price of the APCs, the Defence Ministry will ensure that the price finalised will truly benefit the government without compromising the vehicles’ specifications and systems,” he said when replying to Mohamed Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak).
Mohamed Azmin wanted to know the detailed list on the supply of military hardware worth RM8 billion by Deftech to the government and the rationale for selecting the company in the project.
Ahmad Zahid said the selection of Deftech for the supply of the hardware had yet to be finalised because the government had just sent the Letter of Intent to the company concerned while the purchase price was still at the negotiation stage.
He said the selection of Deftech was made through direct negotiation based on the company’s expertise in developing armoured vehicles particularly the Adnan ACV 300 armoured vehicles which were now being used by the Malaysian armed forces.
“The initial price offered by the company was RM7.983 billion (almost RM8 billion). The price, among others, also takes into consideration the cost of constructing a new facility and the purchase of equipment to develop the vehicles, transfer of technology and the acquisition of Intellectual Property Rights,” he added.
— BERNAMA
–Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (20)
Say no to subsidy!
If the taxpayer pays for the facility, the tax payer and not Syed Bukhari should own it. This is a rerun of the Steyr AUG fiasco. taxpayer underwrote the project which meant that Precision Technologies/SMEO AUGA1s were 2x the price of Steyr rifles. Now the whole line is defunct and scattered to the 4 winds and the tanah in Sungai Buloh has been kapored for kegunaan lain.
Lagi satu projek kerajaan Barisan Nasional untuk kepentingan kroni-kroni. Direct nego, tender tarak.
Inilah KPI in action.
For the same money, the Canucks got 756 LAV IIIs!
Marhalim: For the same money, we can buy all of the tanks, AFV, SPH and fighter jets which the Dutch declared as surplus back in 2006!!
yes to FNSS PARS but no to build it here as no economies of scale. Just pasang je kat sini no need to build from scratch here. To get back your investment worth if you want to build it here, i roughly calculated you need at least 1000 chassis.
If buy outright, roughly will be RM2 to RM3 billion depending on weaponry and other specs (my own estimation la)
Marhalim: Kalau pasang pun we need to pay for the infrastructure for the Pekan plant, its the same deal when they bought the Pinzgauers and Adnans....
I recalled a comment from somebody in the newspaper that questions how can gomen consciously submit an LOI on an item that isn't even field tested by the army yet?
KPI my foot...
always appreciate ur information blog but never agreed to ur comment articles, but this time, well said!
The situation can be described as pouring water into the bucket with leaks. People complain that the bucket is empty and it is not benefiting the country and we should start pouring the water into the bucket. But the bucket is leaking. It might seem full after the first pour but after a while, the bucket is empty again. Repeat cycle.
If people keep hiding behind "we must pour water into our own buckets instead of foreign buckets", instead of figuring out why the water always goes away, it will just be a waste of time.
there are about 115 Leopard 2, according to the report. wah talk about blitzkreig.
agreed! we should hav used the money to buy tanks,APCs, SPHs and medium range SAMs from overseas. Wasn't the point of buying locally meant for cheaper things? wth does things goes the other way? i understand the need for competent military industry but this is just too much especially during economic constraints...
In my personal opinion, the government policy in assets acquisition be it for military purpose or other sosio economic development purposes, seems to be wrought with inefficiency, lack of indepth study on cost and benefits plus seems to be driven for "show case " value rather than economic practicality.
We tend to spend like we are a first world country while in reality, maybe 50km2 of this country be in a 1st world facility while the rest even still looks like during the first time laksamana Cheng ho visits in the 15 century.
I am not questioning the need for new apc, new frigates or additional military equipments, but we must coincides those purchase with our ability to pay, to maintain and to hire people/train people to use it at optimum level.
What is the use of a 5th generation weaponry when most of the time you can only put it in storage or have minimal use due to expensive running cost?
Also what is the use of a high tech combat platform but you cant afford to arm it properly? seems more like a toothless tiger.