SHAH ALAM: Dong Feng prime movers for the the Army. In the last two quarters of 2019, the Defence Ministry published a slew of request for bids for various equipment and weapons as part of the Army’s Recapitalisation Programme. The numbers are small I must admit but according to my sources that it was the biggest procurement exercise for the Army for a decade or so.

Anyhow its already about six months since of all the tenders were published, it is likely that some of the request for bids have been decided and the winning bidders selected. Unfortunately, although the RFB were openly published the results are nowhere to be seen. I appreciate that all government tenders are open for competition nowdays but it is striking that the results – the ones that really matter the most – equipment and weapons – are not made public. Of course the less sexy ones – mostly services – are made public. Please note that this is not limited to the Defence Ministry only as the results of some important tenders for other ministries have also not made public, leading to this one .

I am guessing at least for the Defence Ministry that most of them – equipment and weapons – will only made public when the contracts are signed at DSA 2018 this April. The ministry and the minister himself probably want the publicity generated for the contract signings at the show itself. Lets hope the full details of the contracts signed will be published as well and not like in the past where I had to corner the emcee to get anything worthwhile to write about it (this happened a few times at DSA and LIMA shows)

Anyhow I was told that the three Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) tender was won by a company offering a Dong Feng prime mover. I was not told the exact model but checks on the Dong Feng Malaysia showed there were three models of prime movers that could have been offered for the contract. Before anyone says why China made trucks, it must be noted that the Army had previously bought trucks and prime movers from Romania though it was through a Malaysian company, Pesaka Astana. Most of these vehicles, however, have been replaced by Iveco, MAN and other trucks within the last 10 years.

Does this mean Dong Feng was also selected for the other vehicle tenders? I have no idea at the moment but hopefully I will find out more in the near future. Anyhow the new 4X4 anti-tank guided weapon carriers being sought by the Army – will also have new weapons on them. The Defence Ministry published the RFB for the medium range ATGW on Jan. 24. The tender which is restricted will closed on February 18. I have no idea whether these will be replacing the Metis-M in service. It is likely though as those in service are already some 20 years old already.

— Malaysian Defence