About Marhalim Abas 2149 Articles
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  1. A shocking state of affairs that as usual no one in ”kerajaan” will take reponsibility for. It would help if this country had an opposition that raised constructive and the right questions regarding national defence as opposed to making ignorant and sensational statements for political milage. This report about the Nuris only reinforces my opinion that until funds are found to upgrade the Nuris or to buy the Cougars, we should forget about sexy items like jets, AEW aircraft, missiles, etc.

  2. This is really a sad saga that seems to get worst… Firstly hard to believe that the fleet is in such bad shape. Does anyone know what the average air-frame hours the fleet has accumlated? Although RMAF Nuri fleet is quite old but there are more older airframes in use with other forces with decent availability rates. Is this also due to use of questionable spares from the middleman mafia??? In any case since the decision has been made to replace them, now is as good a time to start the process as it retirement of the copters are inevitable.Without it I think the SAR/Mercy mission and troop mobility will have serious affect without doubt!

  4. If I understand prior Malaysian reports correctly, the worse part is that the helicopters are eventually due to be transferred to army aviation. They certainly need to spend enough on maintenance before passing them on, otherwise the RMAF are passing on lemons to the army.

    Marhalim: It was the plan but the Army isnt too keen on it…

  5. Hi Marhalim

    This sounds more like a logistics screw up. Did the G slash the budget for Nuri spare parts?

    Your report says that the crisis started 2 years ago with the decision to buy the EC-725. Coincidence? Or is this a ploy to get the EC-725?

    Marhalim: No budgets were slashed. By the time the order was deferred it was already too late….

  6. Wah, so surprising. Well, i guess the Mi-17 is a good enough heli for us since we are so damn poor….damn government and opposition…0.8% KDNK for defence even though most countries in the region spent 5-6%….Marhalim, when are they gonna sign the contracts for the Cougars? Heard they had been approved. What’s taking so long?

    Marhalim: RMK10, if the money is available….

  7. Marhalim, I think part of the reason the army is reluctant to accept the Nuris is more to do with whether it will receive an increase in its operational budget to operate the Nuris. Another factor is a lack of army pilots.

  8. The situation could be factors of following:-

    1) Lack of proper planning on all relevant parties on the maintenance, servicing and operational requirement of the nuri
    2)Lack of efficiency in executing what ever plan they may have for the nuri
    3) and also could be of action impropriety that allow people who should not have benefitted rom this program to benefit.

    To answer whether malaysian government dont have money, semi true as i know for a fact that IRB is squeezing as much as they can from the tax lax business community. I just pray that a temporary solution could be found and speedily and possible cost effective while we work on to achieve the magic no of 7%
    econ growth for 2010

    Marhalim: Your reasons are logical but based on conversations I had its mostly about getting a second hand thing from a younger brother…..

  9. Slm & good day. It’s a sad story indeed…What a shame. Something need to be done here. Politics must be put aside in this matter. We need badly, and we need Nuri’s replacement fast. Probably govt can allocated emergency budget/fund for Nuri’s replacement programme.

  10. Marhalim, has the RMAF or ‘kerajaan’ ever realeased any figures as to how many mercy flights have been conducted by the Nuris and Alouttee 111s since the 60’s? I believe the figure would run into the thousands.

    Also, has anyone in this blog kept track of the number of occasions C-130s have delivered aid to Indonesia? Even before the Tsunami,
    C-130s had deployed to Indonesia a number of times during the 90’s and 80s, including once to Flores following an earthquake. More recently, a CN-235 was at the static display at RIAT in the UK and an A-109 was the Avalon air show in Australia, though I’m not sure if this was covered by the local press. Apart from the visit of an ‘N’ and an ‘NUB’ to the Jakarta Air Show in 96, I’m unaware of other foreign apperances made by RMAF Fulcrums. In typical fashion, the PR department at MINDEF released no photos of the MKMs at BRIDEX in Brunei.

    Marhalim: No figures is available. PR remained the last priority I am afraid….

  11. malaysia is going broke (GST anyone?), and what little is left gets grabbed by the middlemen mafia. So, give up hope all ye who enter here because we’ll never see the toys we like in malaysian colours.

  12. yes, damages has been done and no doubt about that. the question now is, how do the MAF solved and control the damages. and yes solution is required from the MAF top brass and quick. and let this be a lesson not to be taken lightly.

    Marhalim: They are going sideways and not solving the problem

  13. Part of the problem is that many of the top brass are too worried about their post military careers [directorships in companies and advisors] to want to stir up a hornets nest.
    There was mention in a British mag recently about how the RAF is ”slowly dying”, the same can be said about the RMAF – a victim of underfunding, public and government indefference and constant political meddling. The only difference is the RMAF is not involved in policing actions in Iraq and Afghanistan on behalf of Uncle Sam and has no global commitments.

  14. Salam..I am not surprised at all with the article..When I was in Labuan a few years back, my close buddy (a nuri pilot) told me only 3 out of 6 nuris located at Labuan AB are in flyble conditions..the other 3 are used only for spareparts cannibalisation..now this is saddening considering we have some of the best pilots..they all are brave and good people..they know the condition of the nuri yet they will still fly them if the requirement arise..but the question is until when…I also heard tht the government wanted to buy new choppers for the air force long time ago but due to some “campur tangan” by certain people at airod the plan was canceled..

  15. Heard some news that PT Dirgantara Indonesia have signed MoU with Eurocopter to assemble EC 725/ EC 225 at Indonesia. If it\’s true than maybe the GOM should seize this opportunities to renegotiate the price because perhaps such development will cause the unit price of Cougars could be lowered a lil\’ bit.

    Marhalim: It just components manufacture, not full assembly although it may happened in the future. During LIMA the French offer Malaysia full assembly and Asia export license if we buy the Cougar, the same deal that they give to the Brazilians…..

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