SHAH ALAM: Kuwaiti Hornets? There is a possibility that the excess fighter aircraft offered by Saudi Arabia are actually surplus Kuwaiti F/A-18 C/D Hornets. Former Combat AirForces editor Alan Warnes, who came for LIMA 17, tweeted today that “the RMAF has been offered surplus F/A-18C/D by Kuwait”.
The KAF’s multirole F/A-18C/Ds would be a good fit as the RMAF flies eight F/A-18Ds. The new RMAF Chief wants to reduce no of diff types too
Warnes did not state where he got the information on the Kuwaiti Hornets. This is interesting as in answers to my questions for LIMA 17, specifically on the Kuwaiti Hornets, the reply from RMAF chief Jen Affendi Buang was:
RMAF already identified shortlisted new aircraft for its MRCA program. Currently, there is no plan in acquiring used aircraft to be used in country
It was, for this reason, I did not pursue the issue further during LIMA 17. Only to be sucker punched like this. So what gives? I am not sure but it will be a very interesting a couple of weeks doesn’t it?
And as for the surplus helicopters offered by the Saudis, it is likely to be Blackhawks based on conversations with several industry sources. But it is still early days, I was told.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (30)
@ marhalim
:)
Probably the offer is to the ministry of defence directly due to the state to state deal.
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Or its just telling the ministry that it is not interested. I did not ask whether they got an offer
To recap
This idea was first mooted here in malaysiandefence on 5th March 2015
https://www.malaysiandefence.com/sustaining-the-rmaf-hornet-fleet-to-2030-and-beyond/
"the RMAF has been offered surplus F/A-18C/D by Kuwait"
That is certainly better option than Asianwarrior Cyclones (Typhoon) and Ducks (Rafale) that are expensive to purchase and maintain.
*Fingers cross*
Are you sure Kuwait AF Hornet has lower hours of airframes? Our Hornet is "newer" compare to them. And i'm pretty sure its not surplus cause Kuwait AF will replace Hornet with Super Hornet on 1:1 basis. Unless they offer us for free then we just being use by them to acquire more money for they Super Hornet program. I hope MINDEF and AF know what they doing.
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They were low hour before the Yemen thing
Dont think there is any more unutilised allocation till 2020 for any mrca albeit used or brand new. All future tax allication has been earmarked for mrt phase 2,east coast railway, lcs,lms and pan borneo highway just to name a few. Might as well wait till then and get brand new fighter circa 2025 that would last another 40 years
Apparently india is looking to take the migs off our hands
replacing mig-29n with F-18c (both are single seater) sounds good to me. hell we can even turn 18 skuadron into full squadron
The issue is that can we bring the kuwaiti f-18 into rmaf f-18 standard
Just buy the 2 seaters F18D. After 20 yrs surely its just 10% of cost value. MRCA can wait 10 more years. Time to retire Mig29 and F5 for good. But if this too wr cant afford then forget MRCA..just buy AT802. A squad of 10 would cover sabah nicely
if let say.. we do get those hornets from Kuwait.Do we still need to upgrade them to the same standard as RMAF hornet?. Its will be lovely if we could get at least 16 of them as intern of course.
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Not much upgrade
Bah, just make a decision...one way or another.
No wonder everyone thinks Malaysia lembek.
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Same like the Lahad Datu incursion...
Get it! Beggars can't be choosers. Take whatever quantity they can offer...while it provide stopgap while waiting for still undecided MRCA ( might be available after 2025) also can gurantee realible maintenance support unlike Mig or Sukhoi