New Shipyard in Bagan Datoh

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is to officiate the new shipyard in Bagan Datoh tomorrow. The ceremony will be conducted after he officiated the Bagan Datoh Umno division meeting headed by its MP and Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

The shipyard is reportedly to be the facility to built two of three MPSS to be built for the navy.

NGV Tech Sdn Bhd, is the preferred local partner for the MPSS project and since it had already signed an MOU to purchase a shipyard in South Korea (during Lima 2009), one can surmised that a baby Dokdo would probably be the chosen design.

–Malaysian Defence

Posted in Malaysian Defence | 34 Comments »

No To The AV8

The AV8Buster Logo

KUALA LUMPUR: 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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10th Malaysian Plan (Repost)

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak unveiled the 10th Malaysian Plan this morning. The allocated ceiling budget for the plan is RM230 billion of which 10 per cent is allocated to the Security sector.

No details of the allocation was released and no one is saying officially how much of the RM23 billion will be allocated between defence and national security.

The unveiling of the plan is also a clear indication that the Kuala Lumpur air base and Sg Udang camp will soon be redeveloped into other things perhaps by next year. As does the Batu Cantoment camp

It will be easy for the army to move out from Sg Udang as most of the commandoes are already at the Mersing camp but it will be much harder for TUDM to move out from Sg Besi.

Going from the emphasis on national security, I am assuming that defence will probably get at the most RM18 billion or it could be even lower although I dont think it will go below RM15 billion. Najib did say that the full details of the spending plan for the next two years will be made public in August but the numbers above does not augur well for the armed forces wish list.

Listed below are projects that had been officially announced for RMK10. Most of the figures are mine however and therefore provisional, unless noted.

1) NGPV Batch II (at least RM6 billion)
2) MPSS (RM2.2 billion, confirmed figure)
3) EC725 (RM1.6 billion, confirmed figure)
4) Nuri Upgrade (RM500 million, my estimate)
5) C130 Upgrade (RM400 million, my estimate)
4) A400M (RM2.5 billion, my estimate)
6) AV8 (RM4 billion with another RM4 billion to borne out in RMK11, my estimate)

With only 6 projects we are already reaching the upper limit of my estimate for the defence allocation. And thats not counting the other projects, AWACs, M4, SPH etc.

If you count these projects you know that Mindef cannot afford all of them. One also must not forget that Mindef also need to spend a lot of money to modernise camps around the country. Oh, they also need to replace a lot of trucks…

–Malaysian Defence

Posted in Kementerian Pertahanan, Malaysian Armed Forces, Malaysian Defence, budget | No Comments »

I smell ….!

KUALA LUMPUR: I know I could be in trouble here but I need to run this ASAP. At first glance it looks funny and weird. One wonders whether MINDEF had conducted background checks on this company before allowing the Defence Minister to witness the signing. I am wondering which airlines are beating their doors….

Crecom unit signs RM17bil deal to buy aircraft

KUALA LUMPUR: Crecom Burj Resources Ltd (CBRL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Crecom Burj Bhd, has signed a US$5bil (RM16.65bil) purchase agreement with Russia-based IRKUT Corp for the acquisition of 50 MC21 passenger aircraft.

IKRUT is the leading aircraft manufacturer in Russia. CBRL is an investment company to establish and develop new business ventures/tie-up with foreign international companies.

The aircraft would eventually be leased out to airline companies, group chief executive officer of Crecom Burj, Mohamad Isa Abdullah said at the signing ceremony yesterday.

At the same event, CBRL also signed a memorandum of agreement with IBH Investment Bank Ltd, which will act as lead arranger for funding the aircraft’s purchase.

Mohamad Isa said delivery of the aircraft was scheduled for 2014.

“Some airlines in South-East Asia have shown an interest in leasing the aircraft,” he added.

He said the Russian plane was chosen for its price competitiveness when compared with other aircraft in the market, as well as technology.

“We anticipate more business opportunities from Russia,” he added. — Bernama

–Malaysian Defence

Posted in Malaysian Defence | 9 Comments »

TUDM 52nd anniversary

KUALA LUMPUR: TUDM celebrated its 52nd anniversary at the Kuala Lumpur Airbase on June 1, probably the last time the celebrations will be held at the historical airport.
The celebrations muted somewhat mostly probably due to budget constraints. Some aircraft took part in flypasts even in a diamond nine Su-30MKM formation but it was certainly muted compared to events celebrated during the Diamond anniversary two years ago.

Sultan of Pahang. TUDM colonel-in-chief launched the new TUDM roadmap.
The roadmap will be the guide for the future development of the air force. However with the air force top brass well and truly a Fighter Mafia I am guessing we will have more fighters in the future, albeit MRCAs of course.

–Malaysian Defence

Posted in Malaysia - RMAF, Malaysian Defence | 3 Comments »