Other news on Malaysian Aeronautics and Aerospace:LANGKAWI, Oct 5 (Bernama) -- Saab AB, the biggest defence equipment company in northern Europe, is at advanced stage of negotiations to sell its most advanced surveillance system to the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF).
Saab International Senior Vice-President Bo Rastedt said the talks have been going on for about seven to eight years and the RMAF might decide on the matter soon.
"If I should guess, I hope we should get something in four to six months," he told Bernama on the sidelines of the six-day LIMA `03 Exhibition that ends Sunday.
The System, the Saab 2000 ERIEYE AEW&C (Aircraft Early Warning & Control) is the most modern tactical surveillance system today.
The company felt four of such systems are adequate for Malaysia to have a 24-hour nationwide air surveillance.
It was reported recently that the RMAF needed four of such systems.
Besides Saab, the other main contenders are Boeing and Northrop Grumman.
The Saab Surveillance System solves both national and international interoperability issues, such as search and rescue operations, surveillance and control of national borders and economic zones, detection of illegal activities (illegal immigration) and drug trafficking.
Saab Surveillance System includes a highly mobile sensor system that have a coverage distance of up to 450km. The sensor is placed on top of a fuel-efficient Saab 2000 turbo prop regional aircraft that can fly eight to 10 hours non-stop.
The Saab 2000 is bigger than the Saab 340 airplane used in the Swedish army-owned Saab Surveillance System. The larger aircraft has space to accommodate more than five people to operate the five working stations onboard.
"We've received interest from some countries in this area. So far, we hope Malaysia will be the first one (to acquire the Saab Surveillance System)," said Rastedt.
On pricing, he said, it depends on what RMAF would put onboard.
Malaysia has signed partnership with PROGRESS of Ukraine thru local radar developer AMCOP to develop and market radars, most possibly the KOLCHUGA radar capable of passive detection of stealth aircraft.
Malaysian UAV developer Excelnet is developing MicroUAV that has an endurance of 1 hour and a range of 10km. It has already built and handover 3 Eagle ARV reconnaissance drone to RMAF that have a 200km operational radius and 10 hours endurance. The ARV is equipped with FLIR and 10x magnification optics.
Malaysian satellite builder Astronautics Technology Sdn. Bhd. (ATSB) after successfully build and launched 2 60cm resolution multispectral optical satellites plan to work together with EADS Astrium to build and launch a satellite with Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) capability by 2007. The SAR technology is capable of penetrating clouds and to some extent vegetation.