18 units of the two-seater F/A-18 F Super Hornet to the Royal-MAF

[Oqaab]

Sounds like the UAE guyz. They have F-16Is and M-2000-9s plus choppers and PGMS. What else cud a guy ask 4?

UAE doesnt operate F-16I, but something more then that.

 

[gf0012-aust]

We certainly do not blame Australia for the miscomment, not a bit. but history show what a one man with power can do. take hitler for example. anyway, we still allies nonetheless. The recent FPDA exercise show that. Sorry for the rather harsh word from my side of the line, but a word from a head of the government is not something we can dismissed just like that. it will have some effect to a certain extent. but, we would like to thanks the Australian people for not going along with Howard's enthusiasm.

now lets get back to the topic at hand.

Malaysia shud be goin 4 Russian eq cuz its a lot cheaper and equally efficient.

I personally believed that the US put some kind of diplomatic pressure to M'sia to purchase their equipments. As u know Malaysia is a traditional buyer for western made equipment, especialy the US made one. The purchase of Migs by Malaysia is rather an unexpected turn of event. The US face with the posibilities that they might loose their position as a major supplier of defence equipment for this country. But this is just my own insight about the purchase of The Super Hornets.

There is also a rumour of the possibilities that the M'sia Government will purchase additional SU-3x to complete at least two dedicated MRCA Squadrons. The current Mig-29 is due for upgrade to SM version. That means new radar, extended range, additional hardpoints and an all new glass cockpits.

I think that one of the difficulties for the Malay Govt is having too many diff aircraft types to support.

You are using both US and Russian equipment (and also British, if you use the Hawk as a lead in fighter in time of war). I think that the Russian purchase was initially for a few reasons:

- Matahir making a political statement to the US
- the absolute initial purchase cost of the aircraft was facilitated by the Russians to get the "sale"

Supporting a number of different frontline aircraft types is expensive.
You have multiplied your logisitics stream (and that is ok in peace time, but can be incredibly draining and debilitating in a war situation)
Multiple radar types, multiple fire control systems, incompatible weapons systems, interfacing issues between the platforms, weapons and fire control systems to your central C4i systems

It will make selecting an AWACs solution almost impossible without paying considerably more money than is really necessary.

I do think that Malaysia made a bad strategic and tactical decision that was driven by political motive first

 

[wzhtg]

It may not be a good idea to have so many different ac but Malaysia did not just do it because of politial reasons. One of the reasons was because of the fear of the impact on the airforce if the US placed an embargo like what they did against pakistan and indonesia. Indonesia's planes had to been grounded due to a lack of spares, that's why they are buying russian ac now.

Also, we dislike the high-handed manner which the US does things in trying to pressurize countries top buy it's ac and make decisions to attack countries on it's own as well as show a complete disregard for the UN. Such acts will set a trend which will make other countries realise that there is no one to stop them from attacking other countries os long as they are on good terms with the US or one of the veto members.


Also, the russians are more willing to offer tech transfer then the US and are willing to sell almost anything to us unlike the US.

 

[corsair7772]

Its not possible tht Malaysia bought the F-18s under political pressure. Mahatir is one hell of a guy and he aint lappin after US, he bought it 4 other reasons. Perhaps illegal tech transfer...if hez that type of guy. But trust me Malay is gonna go 4 russo eq next and always.

 

[gf0012-aust]

Its not possible tht Malaysia bought the F-18s under political pressure. Mahatir is one hell of a guy and he aint lappin after US, he bought it 4 other reasons. Perhaps illegal tech transfer...if hez that type of guy. But trust me Malay is gonna go 4 russo eq next and always.

I think you might have misunderstood me, I wasn't implying that Malaysia bought F18's due to political pressure. I was indicating that force mix was changed to make a political statement.

 

[Aussie Digger]

The problem with John Howard's comments were they were undiplomatic to say the least. I don't think John Howard meant that Australia would be launching unilateral military actions in allied countries in South East Asia. What I believe he intended was a Phillipines type scenario where australian forces were assisting local forces in a fight against terrorist extremists. Australia doesn't have (and doesn't even seek) the capability to launch unilateral action against ANY country in South East Asia. We simply do not possess the military capability. Any such action as would immediately be perceived as an act of war and our very innappropriate forces (for that type of role) would be very quickyl defeated. Australia possesses "reasonably capabale" defence forces that has a principle role of defence of the Australian mainland. We possess some capabilities (principally within our Navy and Air Force) that are capable of deploying and joining overseas coalition's, but we could not attack another country on a significant scale. Cheers.