KUANTAN: RMAF chief Tan Sri Roslan Saad today announced that its fleet of Russian made Mig-29 Fulcrums will slowly be phased out of service instead of being retired.
He said the retirement of the Fulcrums will only be finalised after a full report is submitted to the Defence Ministry. As of now there is no firm retirement date for the 17 Skdn aircraft.
“We have been easing the MIG from service for the last three or four years. As far as I am concerned the Mig-29 is at the end of its service life. We will slowly phased out the aircraft,” he said a press conference after a parade to mark the 58th anniversary of the RMAF at the airbase here.
Three Fulcrums flew in the flypast for the parade while two more were on static display. Three more Fulcrums were on static display, two in the hangar while the third was part of the open day display.
Apart from the Fulcrums, the fly past for the parade include the Hornets, Flankers, PC-7 Mk IIs, EC725 and Nuri helicopters.
RMAF personnel at the parade including the top brass wore the new RMAF digital camouflage uniform which became official starting on June 1. The uniform will replaced the blue uniforms used mostly by the RMAF Provost Marshall and PASKAU. Other units will also used the digital camo during field training.
The Flanker also performed two aerobatic displays during the Kuantan airbase open day as part of the anniversary celebrations.
At least six of the Fulcrums had been service for the last 10 years from 18 procured in 1993. Two were lost in accidents.
Retirement is not the usual RMAF style as I had reported before so it will not be surprising that the Fulcrums will also fade away instead of leaving the stage in a blaze of glory. It had happened to the F-5, the RMAF first supersonic jet.
On the MRCA, Roslan said they were in the final evaluation phase although the government has yet to allocate the funding for the programme. The MRCA is main priority of the RMAF in the RMK11 apart from the MPA, AEW and new ground radars.
RMAF according to Roslan were still considering four candidates namely the Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale, Boeing Super Hornets and the Saab Gripen. He said the number of MRCA to be procured will be 18.
Meanwhile, the third Airbus Defence and Space A400M airlifter for RMAF is expected to be flown home by third week of June. Roslan also said two new Pilatus PC-7 Mk II turbo trainers arrived in Alor Setar today. Three more are expected by July.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (81)
Wait. Isn't Super Hornet and Gripen has been disqualified from MRCA?
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Well, LIMA 17 is on March 21, next year.
Encik Roslan... Kerajaan tak ada duit nak beli jet pejuang harga rm 20-30billion. Beli yang murah2 dan kos terbang pon murah2 seperti FA-50 sudah memadai untuk menggalas tugas Mig-29 dan F-5e.
Kombinasi 16 TA-50 (sebahagian untuk LIFT) dan 24 FA-50 boleh dibeli dengan harga lebih kurang rm 6billion. Gandingan SU-30MKM, F/A-18D hornet dan FA/TA-50 mampu memberikan pertahanan kedaulatan ruang angkasa malaysia yang baik, berbanding kos yang tinggi untuk mendapatkan hanya 8-16 biji MRCA yang memang diluar kemampuan kerajaan malaysia pada waktu ini.
At least six of the Fulcrums had been service for the last 10 years from the 18 procured in 1993.
What does it mean?
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They got 10 airframes still servicable and six are always ready to fly AFAIK
"RMAF according to Roslan were still considering four candidates namely the Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale, Boeing Super Hornets and the Saab Gripen."
^^^
I thought that the RMAF had shortlisted the Typhoon & Rafale?
Marhalim,
Will there be an air force open house this year?
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They hold it just now at the Kuantan airbase for half a day. I did not bother to take pictures as there were too many people at the site. I did mentioned in the re-work of the original post which I did in Kuantan.
As expected. Just a token force will be maintained. Just enough for the national day parades. Just fund it or kill it. Will the token force even have any missile with life left on them. If not then whats the point?
D. W. - ''I thought that the RMAF had shortlisted the Typhoon & Rafale?''
Think about another angle. If we openly rule out certain contenders; that's means a smaller presence at the next LIMA.
I think the RMAF chief was just being diplomatic. The most likely winner is either Rafale or Typhoon, but it ain't over until the fat lady sings.
Really wish that they will go with mig-35. Didn't know that they are in need of new ground radar. New ones like Thales gm400 to replace the selex rat-31dl?
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Mikoyan offered the Mig-35 as a replacement for the 29s. As the 35 remain a prototype it was declined. Yes especially for Sabah and Sarawak
At the very least, the remainning Fulcrums can still play a creative role by standing QRA n air intercept missions