This is a discussion on RMAF Future; need opinions within the Air Force & Aviation forum, part of the Global Defense & Military category; [Mod Edit: The old thread was closed for a time because of trolling by some members. Cheers and have fun ...
[Mod Edit: The old thread was closed for a time because of trolling by some members. Cheers and have fun with the merged threads. ]
Thanks. Unfortunatly there hasn't been much RMAF news to discuss these past few months with regards to procurements. Hopefully this will change soon. Cheers.
3 C-130Hs have flown to Jeddah, as part of Ops Pyramid, and will be flying several sorties a day to evacuate Malaysian nationals from Cairo and Alexandria to Jeddah. The C-130H's had originally flown to Abu Dhabi and couldn't proceed with the evacuation flights until authorisation was granted to land in Saudi Arabia. There are total of 11,700 Malaysians in Egypt, some 3000 of which had been flown to Jeddah by Saturday, the 5th, by the C-130's, 2Malaysian Airlines Systems 747s and 2 Air Asia Airbus 320's.
My best wishes to all Ops Pyramid personnel. Here's a Singaporean blog post praising MAF. As CJ notes in the blog: "The professionalism and operational readiness demonstrated by ATM personnel in this unprecedented recall and deployment of Malaysia's civil resources is a great advertisement for KEMENTAH/ATM recruiters."
________________
“Terrorism is the tactic of demanding the impossible, and demanding it at gunpoint.”
There have been accusations, mostly politicaly motivated in my opinion, that the government responded late and in a haphazard manner in launching the evacuation flights. Nonetheless the RMAF and agencies involved have done a great job.
Apart from re-supply flights to Somalia, Namibia and Bosnia in the 90's I can't think of any other occasions when RMAF C-130's have operated this far west. The only other evacuation flights by C-130's as far as I know of, was in Cambodia during the coup there but there were much less evacuees involved and it was closer to home.
If i'm not mistaken David Boey has done some RSAF articles and photo spreads for AFM in the past.
Last edited by STURM; February 8th, 2011 at 03:15 AM.
There have been accusations, mostly politicaly motivated in my opinion, that the government responded late and in a haphazard manner in launching the evacuation flights. Nonetheless the RMAF and agencies involved have done a great job.
Apart from re-supply flights to Croatia and Bosnia in the 90's I can't think of any other occasions when RMAF C-130's have operated this far west. The only other evacuation flights by C-130's as far as I know of, was in Cambodia during the coup there but there were much less evacuees involved and it was closer to home.
If i'm not mistaken David Boey has done some RSAF articles and photo spreads for AFM in the past.
Those that claimed the response was late are ignorant. Landing rights need to be negotiated. One can't just fly a/c into another country just like that. RMAF needed to go through jeddah.
Its a massive evacuation (11+ thousand MY students studying there). I would guess its beyond MAS/Air asia capability to cope. Otherwise RMAF shouldn't have needed to intervene.
If I'm not wrong, the last evacuation by rmaf c-130 was for the merapi eruption.
Those that claimed the response was late are ignorant. Landing rights need to be negotiated.
Unfortunatly many Malaysians are quick at making claims and accusations without knowing the difficulties involved. Many think it's just a simple matter of taking off, picking up the evacuees and returning them home, never mind the overfights, basing and landing rights that need to be secured from other countries, never mind the logistics involved. In a Malaysian defence blog recently, a joker claims that the Malaysian government made a huge mistake in using military registered aircraft as landing rights for military registered aircraft take longer to secure. According him only commercial aircraft should have been used.... Anyway, Operation Pyramid is to end shortly with about 6500 already evacuated. Should a need arise to evacuate the remaining Malaysians who have chose the remain in Egypt, the naval auxilliary ship, the Bunga Emas, is currently near Port Said and can be used if needed.
Similiarly, the recent incident with pirates has also been critised by various knowledgeable parties with some claiming that the troops involved treated the Somalis with kids gloves and question why so many rounds were fired which led to only a few Somalis being wounded and none killed. Ignored is the fact that the main objectives of securing the vessel and rescuing the crew was achieved. Comparison is also made with the S.Korean operation which led to pirates being killed, ignoring the fact that the circumstances of both operations were different.
RMAF C-130s have also performed non-military or non-traditional roles in the past such as ferrying hippopotamus's back from Bostwana, and flying a satellite to Kwajalein atoll, etc.
Anyone hear any update about the air force wanting to sell off their older PC-7 and purchase an additional 12 PC-7 Mk II? A decision was targetted for April 2011.
________________
Agi Idup Agi Ngelaban
Last edited by renjer; July 11th, 2011 at 08:01 PM.
Malaysia is likely to buy 12 additional Pilatus PC-7 Mk II primary trainers and could sell its early-model PC-7s to the Philippines.
A first batch of new PC-7 Mk IIs will probably be purchased after April 2011, when the country's new five-year budget - the Tenth Malaysia Plan - will come into effect, says an industry source.
"The problem with the current five-year plan is that most of the defence money was spent on armoured personnel carriers," says the source. "The air force definitely has a need for 12 PC-7 Mk IIs, but a decision is not likely until after April 2011." The service will split its planned purchase between two batches, the source says.
In April Malaysia decided to acquire 257 armoured personnel carriers for around $2.5 billion, according to media reports.
The Royal Malaysian Air Force operates 17 PC-7 Mk IIs (above) out of an original fleet of 19 purchased in 2005, with two having been lost in accidents. It also has 31 early-model PC-7s that were acquired in the 1980s.
The source says the older aircraft could be refurbished and sold to the Philippine air force. The Philippines recently took delivery of four Alenia Aermacchi SF-260F primary trainers, with 14 more to follow in early 2011. It also has 25 older model SF-260s and six S-211 trainers, says Flightglobal's MiliCAS database.
The shortage of primary trainers in the Philippines has resulted in a training backlog of between 150 and 170 pilots.
The RMAF has had a long standing requirement for additional PC-7 Mk11s fr a while now, to replace its Mk1s. With a big chunk already allocated for the AV8, 6 LCSs and at least a squadrons worth of MRCA's, it remains to be seen if there is any spare cash left from the budget. There is also a requirement for additional LIFTs as the 8 MBB-339CMs and 4-5 Hawk 100s are insufficient to meet training needs.
It would be interesting to see if anything comes out of the following. I would like to see them going for the "super 30" with some form of upgrade package for the existing 18. Come to think of it, might be interesting to see the Taurus KEPD come our way:
The Malaysian defense ministry plans to buy 18 Russian Su-30MKM fighters fit to carry Russian-Indian BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, the Izvestia daily said on Tuesday.
The Malaysian defense ministry plans to buy 18 Russian Su-30MKM fighters fit to carry Russian-Indian BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, the Izvestia daily said on Tuesday.
The paper said, citing military sources, that Malaysian Defense Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi plans on Tuesday to visit the Irkut aviation plant, producing Su-30MKI fighters for India. According to Izvestia, one such aircraft would cost Malaysia about $50 million, future maintenance included.
During the visit, the minister "may sign a contract to buy 18 Su-30MKM multirole fighters," the paper said.
The defense minister also plans to discuss installing new missiles, including BrahMos, on the 18 Su-30MKM fighters that Malaysia received in August 2009 under the $900-million contract signed in 2003.
Malaysia's mixed fighter fleet also includes Russian MiG-29N Fulcrum and the U.S.-made F/A-18D Hornet and F-5 Tiger in service.
The Su-30MKM is a multi-role Flanker version based on the Su-30MKI model and features a customized avionics package built to Malaysian specifications. Su-family fighters constitute the bulk of Russia's arms exports.
Some info and pics on the current Cope Taufan exercise between the RMAF and the USAF. Aircraft participating include Fulcrums, Hornet. Hawks and Eagles. Apart from Cope Taufan, RMAF fighters also train alongside USN fighters under the annual CARAT exercise.
Integration for the Fulcrums to be armed with the R-77 was done way back in the 1990's, but Malaysia never confirmed or denied receiving the R-77. One reason could have been political - Thailand is believed to have specificly asked for AMRAAMS to go with its 8 Hornets which it ordered and later cancelled, due to the R-77. My guess is that these are the first R-77s to have been ordered. For some reason the RMAF has been 'shy' about releasing photos its Russian ordnance, only training rounds of the Alamo, Archer, KH-31 and KAB-500KR have been displayed publicly.
Live trials were done last year for the KH-31 and KAB-500KR.
] 
