TUDM Open Day 2012

SHAH ALAM: The TUDM Open Day 2012 held at Subang airbase on June 3, 2012 was a qualified success, based on the number of people who came for the show. I dont have the exact numbers but when I was there (between 9.30am to 11.30am) I believe at least 15,000 people had came for the show, from babies to atuk and nenek.

This time around apart from the air force, local defence industry players from Airod to Sapura was out in full force apart from the MRCA hopefuls BAE Systems and Saab. As I was with three kids in tow, I did not spend too much time at the airbase, the weather was great for an airshow but at 35 C and counting it was not the place for young children.

As for the airshow, the MiG-29UB tried to out do the Sukhoi Su-30MKM display but the latter sheer size was simply over-whelming to say the least.

RMAF Sukhoi Su-30MKM during rehearsal for the Open Day 2012

The crowd flocking around a Sukhoi SU-30MKM on static display

RMAF MB-339CM on static display at RMAF Open Day 2012

RMAF Pilatus PC-7 MKII

RMAF Beechcraft King Air

R-73 Archer AAM

Sukhoi SU-30MKM TVC

Typhoon mockup at RMAF Open Day 2012

–Malaysian Defence

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15 Responses to "TUDM Open Day 2012"

Azlan says:

June 4, 2012 at 1:26 pm

I enjoyed it! The RMAF put up a good effort. My only problem, apart from the heat and the tendency of the general public to litter, which of course was beyond the control of the RMAF, was the loud music which was still playing whilst the air display was on. The company that was hired, should had had the good sense to switch the bloody music off!! Even though the 402Bs have been officially retired, 2 are still flying, being used by pilots to maintain currency.

Reply
Yes I was miffed with the littering too and also a booth which sold second-hand shoes at the pasar malam stalls outside the main hangar!
Ahmad says:

June 4, 2012 at 4:37 pm

Enjoyed the show even though the air was burning. Compared to 2008, i did not see Hawk this year. Also, only one MIG and no flares…
forrestcat says:

June 4, 2012 at 9:33 pm

was there 9-11am and boy was it hot but the crowd was large and enthusiastic, had alot of good shots with canon 1000D during the mig and suke shows, it was fruitful excursion for me and enthusiasts.

The eurofighter static display sure says alot as to the direction of the MRCA program or is the BAE people too hopeful? Other blogs on defence also seem to indicate that the EF isncurrently the fave pick.

Reply
To me the MRCA programme is like the 100 metre dash, with the Super Hornet at the 70 metre line but the momentum has stalled, and the Typhoon is at the 40 metre line. Saab remained at the starting line. Rafale is the dark horse here but at the moment in remain neck in neck with the Typhoon.
FareedLHS says:

June 5, 2012 at 6:21 am

Argh… I think I just lost a post…

100 metre dash?! more like one of those extreme running races, or climbing K2 during the dead of winter, or swimming the straits during a typhoon!

Regarding the Typhoon, I really hope that the powers that be are not so stupid as to make yet another bad procurement decision. The Typhoon is the wrong bird is so many ways. The primary ones in my book: too expensive and limited to no anti-ship capability.

Marhalim,

Any chance on a sale of the MiG-29s? Mongolia appears to be in the market. From a recent article:

Last year, [Mongolia’s defense minister, Luvsanvandan] Bold also said Mongolia was negotiating to buy four or five RSK MiG-29s from Russia. Mongolia currently operates MiG-21s. This year, Mongolia’s vice minister of defense, Suren Baasankhuu, told Aviation Week that Mongolia has yet to conclude a deal for the MiG-29s, but still plans to make the acquisition.”

Is a 3 way deal possible? We sell the MiG-29s back to Russia for 4-6 Su-30MKMs. The Russians refurbish them and sell them to the Mongolians. Is there anyone in the Ministry of Defence smart enough to make such a deal?

Reply
Nope I have not heard anything on selling back the 29s
Azlan says:

June 5, 2012 at 11:30 pm

No concrete plans can be made with regards to disposing the MiGs as there is no timeframe as to when the MRCA will be ordered, it mayhappen next year or even in 3 years time. By the time a contract is signed and all are delivered, any prospective buyers for the MiGs won’t be interested anymore. Its makes more sense for Mongolia to buy direct from Russia as there are still plenty of Fulcrums that were made during the 1989-1992 period but were never delivered to the Russian air force [like ours] and are practically new, unlike our ‘N’s.
Azlan says:

June 6, 2012 at 2:08 am

P.S. Marhalim, if I’m not mistaken it was Tempur that mentioned a few years ago that there was a proposal by the RMAF to swap its Fulcrums as part payment for 6 MKMs. Did the RMAF ever officially confirm this? My guess is that the proposal to swap the MKMs [if indeed there ever was one] was a contingency in case
the government made it clear that funds for new fighters would not be forthcoming for the next few years. As the MRCA programme is now on and is just a matter of when, my gut feeling is that the RMAF is happy to continue flying its 8 ‘N’s and 2 ‘NUBs’ until funds are allocated for new MRCAs as it is not keen on additional MKMs [for a variety of reasons and not so much due to displeasure with the aircraft on a platform level] and it is also looking at increasing the numbers of fighters it has. As they say, quantity has a quality of its own.

Whilst I still believe that the Super Hornet remains the best choice, due to commonality in certain parts and ordnance, and the fact that we already have a pool of pilots/WSOs/ground crew that can be expended, I will not be surprised at all if the unexpected happens and something else is ordered. And I doubt if the Gripen still stands a chance as national interest will come into play and BAE Systems and Dassault can offer much more in terms of ToTs and offsets – both of which are terms that we are so mesmorised with – than Saab.
FareedLHS says:

June 7, 2012 at 8:04 am

too good not to share:

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2012/06/usaf-f-15c-train-with-su-30mkm.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Reply
I believed the first time USAF flew with MKMs was last year.
nimitz says:

June 10, 2012 at 2:41 pm

eh, takde doipamerkan AMRAAM dan Sidewinder terkini?

Reply
Nope! The 9X has not been delivered while the Amraams are too precious…
Azlan says:

June 11, 2012 at 12:36 pm

No reason why they would carry live missiles as the exercise did not included any live firings. Air forces tend to carry their live missiles very sparingly as every hour in the air eats into the shelf life of missiles. The Sidewinder training rounds [often seen on our Hawks] are in blue and the Archers and Alamos have 2 large black circles on the missile. I have never seen an RMAF fighter flying with live missiles.

Reply
I think he was referring to the Open Day displays.
Azlan says:

June 11, 2012 at 3:33 pm

Even at the open day displays and at LIMA, I have never seen live missiles. The RMAF probably thought that there was no reason to bring them along as training rounds or ‘dummies’, would do.

Reply
I believe no one would display a live missile or bombs, its simply too dangerous!. In operations,live ordnance would be attached to the aircraft as far away as possible from other aircraft apart from those carrier ops of course. At Lumut, the RMN even has a special jetty where live ordnance (apart from small arms ammo) are loaded onto ships.
nimitz says:

June 12, 2012 at 2:48 pm

I believe no one would display a live missile or bombs, its simply too dangerous!..a delicious target for terrorists to grab munition. MAsa hari terbuka TUDM, PTU takde bagi info tentang perkembangan TUDM seperti yang dibuat oleh PTL utk TLDM?

Reply
I send an email with twenty questions but no answer yet. Will try again.
sharul azlan says:

June 13, 2012 at 2:49 am

i went there!
totally agreed !
the music makes me feel like i’am in somewhere in Western Airshow..

BTW, i managed to round the hanger and asked a lot of questions , I met 1 Mig-29n C.O (ghost) , what plane do you want to fly if you were able to choose for RMAF MRCA?

The answered given is F/A18 Super hornet and when i ask about EF2000 or Rafale, they seems not very like and interested with the european fighter jets.
Azlan says:

June 13, 2012 at 1:48 pm

Live missiles are not usually displayed at airshows mainly because of the trouble it takes to move them from where they are stored to the display area and providing security for the duration of the show, not due to the safety aspects of having them there or the danger that terrorists might grab them. Also, there is no added advantage of having live missiles as dummy or training rounds provide the same effect for display purposes. As for live missiles rarely seen on our planes in the air, its because we dont want to use up the shelf life on those missiles as we don’t have many in the first place :}. Apart from them being carried in the air, the shelf life of missiles are also very dependent on whether they are stored in facilities that meet the standards that are set by the OEMs of the missiles. Same applies to artillery rounds, anti-tank missiles and even small arms ammo. There was a report about 10 years ago in the press that most of the army’s ammo dumps did not meet NATO standards and were in need of repairs.
nimitz says:

June 13, 2012 at 11:03 pm

There was a report about 10 years ago in the press that most of the army’s ammo dumps did not meet NATO standards and were in need of repairs…any update about this? maybe repair done in-situ and ad-hoc basis? sedangkan ada kem nak ganti berek kayu kepada konkrit pun masih tak siap lagi, jangan-jangan depoh kita…

Reply
It was in the Auditor General report some years back about the ammo dump in Melaka, I believe, which were not built to the specifications. I believed that the ammo dump was later abandoned (correct me I am wrong). Anyways there is a new ammo dump build near Temerloh or Raub (Mempaga?) I have not heard anything about that one.
Azlan says:

June 14, 2012 at 4:25 pm

sharul azlan,

The music at foreign airshows are usually of better taste than the ones played at our air shows and army exhibitions by the events companies and are usually switched off when the air display is in progess! And as Marhalim pinted out, there was a booth selling used shoes….

TUDM Open Day 2012

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