SHAH ALAM: THE Eurofighter Consortium announced today that the Sultanate of Kuwait has selected 28 Typhoons for its Air Force. Industry sources in Europe however said that they expect Kuwait will also order a similar number of Boeing Super Hornets to recapitalise its fighter force.
Kuwait is expected to order the Tranche 3 Standard Typhoon, complete with the AESA radar and full multi-role capability, the first new order for the latest variant.
How will this affect Malaysia whose own MRCA programme is expected to be delayed. Well, if we choose Typhoon, somebody else had already paid for the MRCA version. And since the Italians sold these Typhoons, it is likely that they will also be integrated with the Marte ASMs, again another plus factor for us!
And if indeed the Kuwaitis also go for a batch of Super Hornets, it will ensure the Super Hornet line in the US will remain open well into 2018, the year when we are supposed to have funds for the MRCA.
Kuwaiti recapitalisation also mean that we could get a bunch of legacy, low houred Hornets for RMAF, probably for free apart from the upgrading work and extra ordnance, of course.
Eurofighter Consortium announcement:
“Eurofighter welcomes the agreement between Italy and Kuwait for the supply of 28 Eurofighter Typhoons
The Eurofighter Consortium today welcomes the State of Kuwait as a new member of the Eurofighter community.
This new international success follows an order from the Sultanate of Oman for 12 aircraft in December 2012 and it is a further evidence of growing interest in the Eurofighter Typhoon across the globe and in the Gulf Region in particular with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman who have already ordered this combat aircraft.
On behalf of the consortium and its Eurofighter Partner Companies (EPC) the CEO of Eurofighter, Alberto Gutierrez, said: “This new agreement is the confirmation of the superiority of the Eurofighter over its competitors and will provide a great opportunity for further Eurofighter orders. We are delighted to welcome Kuwait as the newest member of our Eurofighter Typhoon family. The Eurofighter is already proven and trusted by six nations to perform in all operational environments.”
With Kuwait, the Eurofighter Typhoon confirms its role as Europe’s largest military collaborative programme with a total of 599 aircraft committed.
It provides leading-edge technologies and strengthens Europe’s defence industry in international competition. More than 100,000 jobs in 400 supplier companies are involved in this four-nation programme and deliver significant contributions.
Since entry into service of the first Eurofighter Typhoon at the end of 2003, 444 aircraft have been delivered to six nations: Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Austria and Saudi Arabia.
In December 2012, Oman became the seventh customer and ordered a total of twelve aircraft. Eurofighter Typhoon is currently in service at 22 operational units and up to now, the whole fleet has completed more than 300,000 flying hours worldwide.”
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (65)
Free legacy hornet 4 the rmaf? I doubt it.. better 4 the kuwaiti's to sell their hornets and help fund their buy then give it 4 free to a staunch and "important" ally like malaysia. With the current gov trend of "pleasing" the rakyat it is highly unlikely that the rmaf will ever get funding 4 the mrca program. Better yet if the opposition come to power in ge14. With their projected 900 mil annual def budget will surely boost the mrca program. Either way the maf is screwd if u ask me.. its crooks vs loons. U can never win.
Shed,
Yeah, political factors still plays in our def procurement. Bet the opposition demands for another def budget cut and leave us bogel instantly. As for the legacy hornets, well, we'll just have to wait for it if the congress ever pass or the Kuwaits would be 'kindly' to donate to us.
Reply
It will be the State Government decision whether or not to release second hand US equipment.
hurry,lets nego with kuwaiti to get their legacy hornet..we can use it as stop gap while waiting MRCA.
OOT - marhalim, what is the percent of our Sukhoi MKM readiness?I've found the information that TNI AU's old Sukhoi ( SU 27 if not mistaken) was canibalise to fulfill their fleet readiness.I hope this problem was not face by TUDM.
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The target is 70 per cent..
"Its crooks vs loons"
That's a nice way of putting it, shed. He he.
But now I can't get Pink Floyd's 'Brain Damage' out of my head.
'The lunatic is in the hall
The lunatics are in my hall
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more ...'
I hope we'd ever get those legacy hornets to support our current fleet but by that time other countries will seek another type of fighters as everyone is eyeing 5th gen by 2020s.
If everything is fail and we don't get the MRCA or anything at all, I suggest we go for X0-2 Wyvern or ADFX-01 Morgan to support our RMAF fleet. lol
Kuwaiti legacy hornets for free?
Probably not, but at least now the chances of malaysia buying the kuwaiti legacy hornets as a substitute for getting new mrca's would be much better (which I 1st advocated here in malaysiandefence a few years ago). A buy of kuwaiti legacy hornets would be much more cheaper than getting a totally new fighter model, in addition to commonizing with the hornet platform. The legacy hornet would still be used by its major user, the us marines up till 2030, so this is totally viable procurement.
This is IMO the cheapest way of getting the tudm's target of 6 full fighter squadrons.
1x su-30mkm sqn
1x f/a-18d sqn (current + kuwaiti d aircrafts )
2x f/a-18c sqn (kuwaiti aircrafts replacing the migs)
2x bae hawks sqn (which imo could be replaced in the future with fa-50 golden eagles, higher performance than the hawks and commonality with hornet engines.)
I wonder whether the idea that the Kuwaitis will 'donate' us the legacy Hornets is sarcasm.
I know the Pakistanis bought some aircrafts from some Arab countries at bargain prices.
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No. Even if they sell us the planes for RM10 million each I will still consider that as a donation considering the cheapest MRCA probably cost at least RM420 million now. Even if we spend around RM50 million to upgrade each aircraft it will be a very very good deal.
Another news
Algeria adding another 14 sukhoi su-30mka (close cousins to malaysian su-30mkm's)
1st plane to be delivered in 2016, to be completed by 2017 (that would be some pretty fast deliveries)
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And it is widely quoted that each plane costs around $US30 million or around RM129 million now. That is without our specified equipment of course.
Buying these second hand hornets is a dfferent issue. Imo its better 4 the rmaf to standardized on these 2 models (the sukhoi and the hornets) the going 4 a brand new model 4 the time being. Btw the algerian is adding another batch of sukhoi to their fleet. System wise they are the closest to our mkm's then the mki's. Malaysia wont go wrong wth a minimum of 60 airframe of the above combination. But sometime the "experts" differ from country to country.. if u know what i mean.
Smellyboy
If u asked the good dr kua, we are better of using wooden clubs as weapons since the confrontation and insurgency era is long gone. Why "waste" money on def la bro.
Shed,
Hate to say it, everything in Malaysia was always wrong. From the top to the bottom even if we lectured him. Hell, even Malaysia Military Power Admin had declared Kua and Rafizi as idiots and lectured tons of times tho.
Anyway, how many Kuwaitis Hornet currently? I forget the number of its air frame tho...
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They bought 27 single seaters and 7 two seaters, how many are still active is beyond me. If we can get even 18 single seaters and four two seaters it will be good enough.