SHAH ALAM: Janes is reporting that a Mildef International Technologies Sdn Bhd official as saying that the company will supply 178 Tarantula 4X4 High Mobility Armoured Vehicle to the Malaysian Armed Forces.
The story:
Malaysian firm Mildef International Technologies will supply 178 Tarantula 4×4 High Mobility Armoured Vehicles (HMAVs) to the Malaysian Armed Forces, a Mildef official told Janes on 7 August. The official added that delivery of the vehicles will start from 2024.
Mildef show cased its Tarantula HMAV at the DSA 2022 defence exhibition in Kuala Lumpur. Company officials told Janes at the exhibition that the Malaysian Armed Forces were looking to lease Tarantulas, with the contract scheduled to be awarded in 2023. The Mildef official has not confirmed whether the order for the 178 Tarantulas is for lease or purchase.
Malaysian Defence was told that no contract for the supply of the armoured vehicles has been awarded though. It must be noted unlike the SPH deal which was cancelled by the PMX administration, the deal for the 4X4 remained in the background. Yes, I know I had stated both had been cancelled. But it appears that only the SPH deal had been officially cancelled.
If you recalled, the previous Defence Minister DS Hishammuddin Hussein announced after the presentation of the proposed 2023 budget that the government was buying some 134 armoured vehicles together with unarmoured vehicles under a deal worth RM2 billion. The Janes story says 178 though.
The budget was not approved as the Ismail Sabri government called for a general election a day after it was proposed. A new budget announced by PMX, was later passed by Parliament in February this year and did not include funds for the SPH and 4X4s.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (48)
Got any fresh scoop on the SPH deal?
Its going for tender but when is the one million dollar answer.
Tarantula?!..seriously??..I've been informed by the user that this vehicle performed poorly during the trial. Basically, it failed!
It's sad and angers me to know despite the numerous gov change, the procurement process of assets is still the same! Doesn't care about end-user preference.
Did the army dislike Deftech lipan bara? Why not just procure more of those vehicle
yes they do not want the vehicle for various reasons
IMO it is too big and too heavy, and offers only a small performance and protection upgrade from the Condor APC.
we knew the offer price of the SPH. We also knew the cost of Lipanbara (RM 7.05 million each, which is exorbitant, when the First Win it was based on is only USD 0.513 million each).
I would love to know what is the price offer of these tarantulas.
BTW current armor technology has enabled the same protection level of the Tarantula (STANAG 4569 Level 2) to be had on a vehicle that is less than half of the weight of the Tarantula (11 ton empty)
>I’ve been informed by the user that this vehicle performed poorly during the trial. Basically, it failed
Anyone and everyone can make the claim but unless there's official report about the trial people would just assumed you pull that stuff out of thin air
I can claim that a little bird told me the vehicle passed with flying color
Perhaps it was uncancelled (if there was such a thing) after the vendor (ie crony) played ball with the new administration. In the other side of fence, this also happen when SPANCO was reawarded Govt fleet contract after it was cancelled by PN Govt for Naza to managed instead.
@Red October
Why this should anger you? Our defence matters, such as the SPH, have been a political football for our ever changing Govts, with it being on-off-on-off depending on who is running the show. Some commenters here even supports this flip flop on the assumption that the end user might just get what they wanted doesn't matter if it will be 2050 by the time we finally get them.
IMHO I do not think it’s all doom and gloom as some perceive. The Tarantula trials were a few years ago and any defects or issues may already have been addressed. This is the first batch and surely there will be issues. Hopefully the vehicle will improve with later variants. I am just being optimistic.
"yes they do not want the vehicle for various reasons"
Then is the Tarantula what TDM wanted?
Nope, as I mentioned before they wanted a smaller 4X4 like the Nurol Makina 4X4 or the JLTV> Thats why even Mildef proposed the Rentaka.
Yeah i seconded that thought but heard that the issue with tarantula is mainly about their bulky and protruding size..Maybe theyve already received some feedbacks and inputs from the army to make the tarantula up to army's requirement..but yeah to give them a tender of 178 in one go are kinda overstreched but then this news/tender/contract is not confirmed by TDM or menhan yet..its still could be just another rumour untill we heard otherwise..
Tarantula like lipan bara as a platform is a bit obsolete compared to the like of JLTV. But JLTV & it's equivalent are dime in a few with only Oshkosh & Thales is offering a 'off the shelf' products while others manufacturer products are still in the prototypes stages.