SHAH ALAM: Tender for three-tonne GS cargo trucks. The Defence Ministry has issued a tender for 132 three-tonne GS Cargo trucks for the Army as part of its Mobility II programme. The tender is opened from Feb. 25 to Mar. 25, a 30-day period which will allow companies with the correct field code and also a manufacturer, to compete for the tender.
A similar tender was issued in 2019 also for the same type and number of trucks and it is likely that the latest tender is just a re-competition for the same requirements. That said it may well be this is the second tender for the same number and type of trucks.
It must also be noted that in 2019 a tender for a 5-tonne GS cargo truck was also published at the same time for the three tonner. If the same tender is published next week it may well be that the ministry failed to find the trucks the Army was looking for back in 2019.
Anyhow, it appears that the six MD530G light scout helicopters will be delivered to the Army this August. Bernama reported that the helicopters will be delivered once it had undergone certification and other tests to be conducted by the Army. The report said that Army chief Gen. Zamrose Mohd Zin himself will go to Arizona in the US for the pre-delivery inspection. Zamrose told the news agency that he went to the US last year for the flight testing.
It must be noted that the Army chief had stated before that the first three helicopters will be delivered in June this year. I am guessing it will be cheaper to ship back the helicopters at one go instead of in two batches as originally envisaged.
— Malaysian Defence
Will the army move on from using a militarized civilian truck to using an actual military grade truck?
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It depends on what is offered and the price. Most of the trucks are out there are militarised version of civilian trucks unless you buy American ones of course
Tatra(not TATA!) trucks are developed onset with militarised purpose rather than converted to later on.
There’s also Kia’s military truck.
Ashok Leyland and Kamaz also made actual military truck if the army looking for cheap military trucks. Afaik Kamaz did offer their trucks to malaysian army some years back
The army for the foreseeable future will stick to the Handalan as it’s standard utility lorry. Little to no chance of another player entering the scene.
What will continue to happen are other companies being selected to supply heavy lifters (i.e. MAN), heavy recovery vehicles (i.e. Volvo) and low loaders (i.e. Iveco); stuff that Deftech is unable to supply
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Deftech supplied the Iveco low loaders
Marhalim,
Who supplied the low loaders which were operated before the Iveco ones?
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Some by Amdac which rebranded them with their name though the trucks are actually MAN and even Ivecos. I think this was the time that Deftech got the contract for Adnans.
“Little to no chance of another player entering the scene.”
Wonder why Govt have to do 2nd tender when we know Handalan II will be it. Maybe buyer-supplier doing a tug of war due to technicalities and profit margin?
@nimitz
Cause the first round Deftech/Isuzu got direct contract. Shouldn’t we be glad there is more transparency on defence procurement now or did I miss something? And if going by the spirit of open tenders there shouldn’t be such certainties or assumptions as above. It certainly can make a compelling case to continue with Deftech/Isuzu for the sake of commonality, and TDM might just pick that even if not the lowest bidder if they can justify to bean counters, but as long as TDM don’t get obscure branded trucks, they are safe to multi-source from different brands. This is common with logistics & haulage sector anyways, and reliability & uptime are paramount in this industry.
Years ago I saw a picture of a Russian Kamaz truck at Gong Kedak. It had air force plates and was fitted with a high engine air intake for fording.
Are those Handalan trucks 4×4?
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Yup