Shooting At Stars

Boeing 787 Dreamliner in Malaysia Airlines livery. Boeing photo

SHAH ALAM: Shooting at stars. A couple of days ahead of DS Najib Razak visit to the White House, several news portal claimed that he will sign a contract to buy Super Hornets there as a way to wriggle out of his “legal” troubles.

It was naive for them to think there is only one jalan tikus in this world as it was announced Malaysia this morning was indeed buying jets from Boeing though these are the passenger planes variety!

Boeing 787 Dreamliner in Malaysia Airlines livery. Boeing photo

From Bernama

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Boeing [NYSE: BA] and Malaysia Airlines Berhad (Malaysia Airlines) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding for 16 airplanes during a ceremony at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington D.C.

The signing was witnessed by Dato’ Sri Mustapa bin Mohamed, Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry and in the presence of The Honorable Dato’ Sri Muhammad Najib Bin Tun Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia as well as members from the airline and Boeing.

The announcement includes eight 787-9 Dreamliners by converting eight of Malaysia Airlines’ existing order of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and eight additional purchase rights of the 737 MAX 8s as well as Boeing’s Global Fleet Care service to maintain the national carrier’s current and future Boeing airplanes. Once finalized, the deal will be posted to Boeing’s Orders and Deliveries website.

“Malaysia Airlines is proud to sign this MOU for the widebody Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners and additional 737 MAXs, building on our more than 40 years of partnership with Boeing,” said Peter Bellew, managing director and chief executive officer of Malaysia Airlines. “New widebody aircraft are a key to making Malaysia Airlines a premium airline offering a five star product again.
The extraordinary range of the 787-9 gives an ability to operate to any point in Europe and some USA destinations in the future from Kuala Lumpur. The MOU with Boeing on their Global Fleet Care program will allow the two companies to build a world class MRO for the 737 MAX, 787 and 737NG based on Malaysia’s existing facilities in Kuala Lumpur.”

Malaysia Airlines currently operates more than 50 Next-Generation 737s and has an additional 25 737 MAXs on order, including 10 for the new 737 MAX 10.

“Boeing offers the very best widebody and single aisle airplanes in the world and we are delighted Malaysia Airlines continues to put its trust and confidence in Boeing with this MOU for 16 Boeing airplanes,” said Kevin McAllister, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “The 787 and the 737 MAX will provide Malaysia Airlines with unmatched fuel efficiency, economics and a superior passenger experience as they continue to grow their business across Southeast Asia and beyond.”

Whether or not, Najib and Trump discussed the Super Hornets is beyond me at the moment, we will have to wait for the transcript of their meeting. Even there was discussions it does not meant any deal is forthcoming.

AFV30 Gempita in desert camouflage. Social media

Anyhow, it appears that Deftech is taking the first steps of exporting the AV8 Gempita. The company has send at least one Gempita, an AFV30, based on a picture posted on social media, to a very, friendly country in the Middle East. As I have been asked not to name the country, I will leave it to your imagination.
Gempita AFV30 variant of 1 Kor Armor Di Raja seen at the Kuantan airbase at the PAT first order on Jan 24, 2017.

The Gempita has been trialled in the country for several months now. I am not sure whether it will be the first Gempita to face baptism of fire but if they took it far south, it might just.

— Malaysian Defence

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Shah Alam

17 Comments

  1. Haha Ha…. how obvious could it be….. am I in the same country now performing my 5th Islamic obligations…

  2. In its current form…i dont think av8 will survive any rpg fire…will need urban protection package like reactive armor or steel cage like the one use by stryker

  3. Still an excellent achievement by our local defence company, Deftech, to have those Gempita trialled by a foreign country.

    Clearly AFV30 variant is one of the best globally in their category for the time being.

    Any deals in the future will be a proud moment for all of us.

  4. Gempita,

    For sure it is not the same country buying the PARS (Oman)

    Or is it Saudi? I can see a person wearing saudi camo on the turret hatch. For political reasons not wanting to buy direct from Turkey, probably buying them through Malaysia instead?

    BTW look at the Gempita plate numbers. the one in middle east is ZC3209 while the one with 1 Armor is ZC3210

    Anyway how many Gempita’s actually sent to the middle east? Seen a few others (one of them, the recce version with vingtaqs) painted in sand camo.

  5. Csl,

    The Gempita Can stand from RPG, They used the STANG Level 4 Armour Protection.

    By the way Marhalim, About The Discuss the SH. I think Our PM Won’t Talk about it.

  6. ZekMR,

    How did you reach the conclusion that the 30mm variant is “one of the best globally” in its category? Based on what comparison or measured against what other design?

    Safran,

    The AV-8 can’t “stand from RPG”. An RPG or any shoulder fired weapon will penetrate it. It’s protected up to 14.5mm.

  7. A possible barter trade being hammer out between Malaysia and Saudi?
    Secondhand Hornet in exchange for AV8?

  8. Cool AV8 desert camo. But I think said country has enough mowag piranhas and F-15 plus Eurofighters to deal with something down south or further east depending on how childlike their leaders want to continue to be…..

  9. If indeed Saudi buys AV-8s it doesn’t necessarily mean it actually has a requirement for IFVs to equip either the military or SANG. Politics ……. If viewed from a non political angle what benefits will there be to buy AV-8s from DEFTECH rather than Pars direct from Turkey? It’s not as if DEFTECH has performed major modifications that make the AV-8 vastly superior to Pars.

    Similarly, just because a OEM sends a product to be trailed in a foreign country doesn’t nesessarily mean that country has a requirement for that product or has expressed anything more than casual interest in that product.

  10. Re: AV-8,
    Lets see what we get out of it.

    Reply
    Cold hard cash is all I want, anything else is just desserts

  11. There are less than 100 models of 8×8 new generation (less than 10 years in active duty) wheeled armoured vehicle in the whole world today.

    In 30mm main armament category, LCT30 turret is among the latest, with advanced systems (sight, gun & fire control, communication etc.)

    Protection (STANAG level 4) is not bad at all.

    If we collectively put Gempita AFV30 (without Ingwe AT) under Top 50, it still one of the best and certainly not the worst GLOBALLY.

    Peace.

  12. Now the PM is in London.

    During talks with the British PM, they even discussed about the Typhoon… Previously with Hollande he discussed about the Rafale… While everyone knows that we haven’t got the cash to buy either.

    BTW it is made known that Australian legacy hornets is up for sale. Canada have gone for a look, probably Malaysia should too, as spare parts source for our own hornets at least.

    Reply
    Well both leaders don’t want to be accused of not supporting their industry. Furthermore such things are normal talking about an unfulfilled requirements even during this time as they cannot be seen a fair weather friends as well so the discussions goes on.

  13. ZekMR,

    You’re going to have to do better to prove your point that the AV-8 “is still one of the best”. I’m not saying it’s the worst but I also won’t make the claim you’re making. Stuff like “advanced” and “latest” doesn’t tell us anything as other makes also have “advanced” and “latest” stuff. If you really want to make an objective comparison, you have to ask things like how reliable the engine is compared to others, it’s ground pressure, how does the vehicle perform in certain terrain when fitted out in a certain way, how much growth potential it has, etc, etc. The protection level is decent but certainly nothing to shout about.

    Also, given we’ve gold plated the AV-8 will the army ever get the numbers it wants? For that matter will we see DEFTECH doing future improvements to the design? Another important point is like the Adnan, the Pars was not selected because it has superior performance to its rivals or came closest to meeting the army’s specific requirements but because of politics/national interests.

  14. If the recently announced price tag of the suspended (or dead?) Canadian’s 18 Super Hornets package is true, it is really hard to see how Malaysia can still pretend to be able to afford any of the western candidates for the MRCA, with the fiscal woes not predicted to end any time soon in the near future when the MRCA decision is supposed to be made. Sure some would argue that financing is provided by the respective governments but then again, if we need financing, does it not imply that we cannot afford it, plus is it wise to burden the already hard pressed Malaysians with more debt… National defense is important but I think a financially sound nation is more vital to the well-being of Malaysians in the long run, just a thought…

  15. probably my country Morocco, the prime minister was in Malaysia few weeks ago for this beast, and the last picture is clearly featuring Moroccan camouflage just like our Abrams tanks.

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