SHAH ALAM: Radio mods for KD Rencong. In a post in January, Malaysian Defence wrote about the tender to repair/modify the radios on KD Rencong. I posted that it was likely that Rencong will have a new U/VHF radio, just like her sister ships, KD Keris; KD Sundang and KD Badik.
And this was confirmed when Eperolehan website published the announcement (no date) for the winner of the tender which was Rohde & Schwarz Malaysia Sdn Bhd. The LOA for the contract is RM498,000, some RM20,000 more than the previous ones.
Again, RMN has not announced anything on the issue apart confirming that it had undertaken the work on all of the three previous ships of the class. It is interesting to note that various experts had chimed in claiming that these was due to the low quality of the China-made radio (though none of them had any proof on this but only based on it from other people reporting).
Malaysian Defence had reported that the Keris class (at least Keris and Sundang) had two new communication domes installed on them (on different locations) and it is likely also both Badik and Rencong will also be soon be installed with them also.
Anyhow, there were two questions in Parliament yesterday, regarding the LCS and the FLIT/LCA tender. The answer for the LCS did not revealed anything new apart from saying that the Cabinet is still waiting for the Defence Ministry and other government agencies to prepare their report for consideration (which is also not new, really).
Meanwhile, the FLIT/LCA tender evaluation process has been completed and the final report is being completed for the ministry’s tender committee decision. I am going on a limb here to say that no decision will be made for both until the next general election (which the smart people are pegging to be held in early 2023).
— Malaysian Defence
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Basically the chinese radios installed are to marine commercial-spec, with no capability for encrypted or radio-hopping transmissions. As it is, the marine commercial-spec radios are good enough, but everyone can hear what it talked through them with ESM. So it is replaced with a military-spec radio.
Same goes with the SATCOM domes (marhalim described these as GPS domes before). The chinese domes are commercial-spec, with the new grey domes are military-spec.
I call them GPS domes as that was what the RMN chief described them.
"Cabinet is still waiting for the Defence Ministry and other government agencies to prepare their report for consideration (which is also not new, really)"
What is so hard for the cabinet to set a deadline for this report? It has been years that this project is in a limbo, admirals and menhans has come and go and still no report to the cabinet about the Gowinds?
Simple, really, they simply cannot fathom spending RM3.7 billion but the first ship will only be ready, if all goes to plan, in 2025. Now with the continuing delays it is likely that date has slipped to 2026
We have a very weak and indecisive Defence Minister
Then we need a Plan B.
We need to give the navy the frigates that they need. Even if it meant for a totally new frigate project.
Then every single person that contributed to the Gowind failure must be held accountable.
Funnily even with such massive failures MINDEF and RMN KPI are 100% met all these years. What a joke.
Hassan - We have a very weak and indecisive Defence Minister
You're not the first to make that claim. Even if we had a strong and decisive one, he doesn't drive policy or make decisions, the cabinet does.
Said this many times and I'll say it again, the conditions which led to this cock up were made possible by the highly flawed, self defeating and politically driven defence policy we have. Unfortunately there is no will to revamp the policy or to learn from mistakes
gonggok- So it is replaced with a military-spec radio
To make them compatible with the comes on other ships and for certain features, as you lauded to, which are lacking in the Chinese ones.
@Azlan
He just needs to write a cabinet paper and present what he thinks its right....thats all. Now, he is just pretending that there is no elephant in the room.
Meanwhile, all our neighbors are making fun of that project.
Remember when the sulu army landed? Same indecisive defence minister. Najib replaced him with Zahid to see something done.
Hasnan - ''He just needs to write a cabinet paper and present what he thinks its right….thats all. Now, he is just pretending that there is no elephant in the room.''
Agree but can you say he hasn't done it? Can you say for certain he's not pushing it? I'm not suggesting he shouldn't do more, merely that he reports to the cabinet and it's a cabinet decision. He doesn't drive policy or make key decisions and can also do what he can as part of the government he's a part of. Ultimately it's our defence policy which led us to where we are now.
Hasnan - ''Najib replaced him with Zahid to see something done.
He was replaced because it was politically expedient.... Not so much because of Lahad Dato but for other reasons.
Singapore is creating a fourth military service.
The Digital and Intelligence Service (DIS) - the SAF's fourth service after the army, navy, and the air force - will be responsible for intelligence, cyber and psychological defence, as well as advancing the SAF as a networked force.
Something very interesting to closely look into.
The radio is made by Icom. A Japanese company
@gonggok
"chinese radios are marine commercial-spec"
It appears the planners that drew up the specs were equipping these ships with the most basic of Chinese gear so that it is merely functional and seaworthy, but later on easily replacing these with Western made stuff. The radios & GPS comms are the easiest, later on prolly the deck mounted RWS (possibly together with a new CMS?).
"totally new frigate project"
That will put us back to square one. No way will the Govt justify spending another few billions again, not with Opposition scrutiny. The same reason why they are not willing to put money to restart LCS build when GE15 is around the corner. H2O can make all the decisions he want, but he doesn't hold the purse strings.