SHAH ALAM: IN my post “When November Comes” I wrote that the contract for the MD Helicopters MD-530G aka Little Bird will be signed during the ASEM summit with US president Barack Obama in attendance. Actually, the contract signing for the light scout attack helicopter did took place during that week alas without the presence of the POTUS.
Despite the best efforts they could not slot the contract signing during the busy ASEM weekend. Both sides had wanted Obama to witness the signing as this was to be the most significant arms deal between the US and Malaysia, since the Hornet procurement in 1993.
Yes we did bought other stuff from the US in the intervening years like the M4 Carbines but nothing really significant like the Hornets.
Details of the direct commercial deal is expected to be made public at DSA 2016. The number of MD-530G signed was six, I was told and not eight as I had reported.
As mentioned previously, the Little Birds will be deployed in ESSCOM once delivered and fully operational. For the weapons package, its likely the standard suite like the Dillon Aero M134D minigun, HMG and rocket pods and guided rockets will be procured as shown by the picture below.
It is unlikely for the moment that we will be buying the Hellfire ATGM – cleared for the Little Bird – as this will need to be procured through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme. A future buy is still likely though for the rather pricey ordnance.
It is expected that the Little Bird version that was contracted was the same as the example displayed at LIMA 2015 earlier this year. Among others, the MD 530G displayed at LIMA featured the 650 shp Rolls Royce 250-C30 engine, longer main-rotor blades, high-capacity landing gear, the Moog Stores Management System (SMS), Harris Corporation’s RF-7850A-UA tactical radio and the Thales’ Scorpion helmet-mounted cueing system.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (32)
Very Good for ATM.BTW,Did Malaysia will Buy MH-6i.Cause If ATM Choose The Heavy Attack Helicopter.I don't Mind.but We Need to Moderzation As fast as we can.
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No, we buy the MD530G, the AH-6i is the Boeing version. MD Helicopters built the airframe of AH-6i anyway.
Hope that procurement of attack heli like Tiger will be finalized in the next 5 years..
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The AH programme is now dead in the water with the Little Bird contract
The quantity is on the low side, nevertheless hopefully additional units would be added later (ideally 18, with 6 always in the esscom operational area)
As usual, what does it cost malaysia?
Hopefully this will be the start of a battalion sized PUTD, with 3 squadrons of helicopters ( the a109, blackhawk and little birds. Leave the nuris back with tudm)
A step in the right direction and more practical than previous plans to get Tigers which would have been a massive overkill for ESSCOM. Just like like how USN Little Birds use to operate from barges in the northern Gulf during the late 1980's, the 530Gs will no doubt operate from the 2 FOBs.
Some will still say we should have bought the AH-6i but if we had indeed bought the AH-6i; some would say we should have bought the 530G.
Thank you for buying these Little Birds.They are my favorites.Whether it is 6 or 8, it does not matter as long as we can shoot from the sky.That matters.
Marhalim,
Why Don't Buy The Kamov Ka-52 or AH-64 For ESSCOM And ESSZONE In 2017.If PUTD Gets Scout Helicopter like Ka-52,We May Be Lucky.Also,What's the News about the Cargo Helicopter ?
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Because they don't want to buy attack helicopters
Even the afghanistani pilots complained about its meager payload and range.
Even if getting an attack helo for ESSCOM is an overkill, at least get something that has better commonality with existing platform, like ecureuil 2 or Fennec or even more A109s
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Afghanistan is a mountainous country, its a high and hot country and helos like the Little Birds suffers as well as the Blackhawks and the Chinooks! It will be fine in eastern Sabah as long as the support and maintenance are taken care off. Yes perhaps a platform already in service will be better but as I like to point out : The More the Merrier!
Ahmad Zaki,
If you want our boys to learn their way chopping every mundu comes into our waters, this is the best kick starter set. Then again, as Azlan said earlier, getting the AHs would be massive overkill. Besides, we need an omnirole as it can perform scouting and laying supressive fire when the boys on the ground needed. Not to mention, with the size of both Apache's and Aligator aren't suitable to perform such task. Not to mention, there has been an argument about arming the LOHs as an interim attack/support chopper in the last few posts. (Azlan, if you're reading this please fix me if I'm not correct.)
And then the question of maintenance pops up too. We have a small budget with small numbers of army pilots to operate. Luckily, it was joint with the TUDM. Then again, some sees this as a dislike. Another reason that we doesn't such heavy AHs is that these mundus and the Suluks doesn't have such heavy vehicles such as APCs and tanks unless you want to rain blindly into the area wasting all your weapons and pray that it hits the enemy.
dundun - ''even more A109s''
The A-109 has yet to be integrated with a a wide range of weaponry and the army has no desire for additional A-109s due to a variety of reasons, namely its lack of robustness.
For taskings that require more ordnance to be carried and greater distances to be flown; the Afghans have Hinds [some courtesy of the Czechs who handed them over rather than ship them home when their deployment ended].
Izzudin Al-Hashim- ''Why Don’t Buy The Kamov Ka-52 or AH-64 For ESSCOM And ESSZONE In 2017.''
There is zero interest in buying Russian [this has been pointed out before] and buying a full fledged attack helicopter [even if the cash was there, which it isn't - not just to buy but to operate and support them]] is an overkill for the level of threat encountered in ESSCOM. It's not as if the 5th Soviet Tank Guards Army or The British Army on the Rhine will be landing on the Lahad Dato or Tawau coast.
Azlan
Aha it will...The leopards are coming....