From Fudzail.blogpost.com
CURRENT GFP RANK	27  Malaysia	41 Singapore
Total Population	28,728,607	4,740,737
Military Manpower Available	14,817,517	1,255,902
Fit for Military Service	12,422,580	2,105,973
Reaching Military Age Yearly	519,280	52,466
Active Military Personnel	124,000	72,000
Active Military Reserves	640,199	300,000
Total Aircraft	258	422
Total Land-Based Weapons	2,465	8,001
Total Naval Units	65	47
Towed Artillery	54	208
Merchant Marine Strength	321	1,422
Major Ports and Terminals	5	1
Aircraft Carriers	0	0
Destroyers	0	0
Frigates	4	6
Submarines	2	6
Patrol Coastal Craft	37	18
Mine Warfare Craft	4	4
Amphibious Operations Craft	1	4
Defense Budget / Expenditure	$3,500,000,000	$9,829,496,000
Foreign Reserves	$106,500,000,000	$225,800,000,000
Purchasing Power	$414,400,000,000	$291,900,000,000
Oil Production	693,700 bbl	10,910 bbl
Oil Consumption	536,000 bbl	927,000 bbl
Proven Oil Reserves	2,900,000,000 bbl	0 bbl
Total Labor Force	12,200,000	3,075,000
Roadway Coverage	98,721 km	3,356 km
Railway Coverage	1,849 km	0 km
Waterway Coverage	7,200 km	10 km
Coastline Coverage	4,675 km	193 km
Major Serviceable Airports	118	8
Square Land Area	329,847 km	697 km

Berita KD SRI INDERAPURA

2013 budget: No additional sum for Mindef

Sept 13, 2012

There will be no additional allocation for the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) in the 2013 Budget so as to give more space to the government to focus on improving the people's socio-economy, said Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
He said the ministry was satisfied with the discussions held with the Finance Ministry and was not expecting any increase in allocation for it in the coming budget.
"This is because we feel that socio-economic programmes should be given priority.
"As for defence activities, we will continue with the existing training and preparing ourselves for readiness to face any potential threat," he said on the 2013 Budget, here, yesterday.
He said although there would be no additional allocation for the ministry in the new budget, safeguarding national security and sovereignty remained a priority without any compromise. —

from Bernama

Malaysia Pushes For Maritime Surveillance Aircraft Lease

FROM
Leithen Francis -

The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) is pushing for a budget to acquire fixed-wing maritime surveillance aircraft on long-term wet-lease, since its existing agreement with Bombardier for maritime patrol has lapsed.
The MMEA also is hoping to renew a customer support pact with Bombardier that lapsed a while ago, according to the agency’s director general, Adm. Amdan bin Kurish. “The Bombardier planes have not been flying for some time,” he says.
Amdan attributes the failure to “bureaucracy and haggling over price.” He cites instances where his agency and Bombardier would reach agreement, but MMEA would have trouble getting approval from senior government officials. The process of going back and forth on negotiations was time-consuming and led to the contract lapsing before a new one was ready, he says.
Without a support contract , MMEA’s two Bombardier 415 amphibious aircraft have been grounded at its base at Kuala Lumpur Subang Airport. Amdan predicts the 415s will fly again soon, although he cannot say precisely when. He also says the MMEA’s amphibious aircraft pilots will have to travel overseas for simulator training to regain some of their proficiency.
MMEA’s customer support agreement with AgustaWestland also expired, but that was less of an issue because the helicopter maker decided to roll over the agreement on a month-to-month basis until a new one could be reached.

The RMN Update

From Defence Journal - Mr Marhalim Abas

 In conjunction with RMN’s 78th anniversary, its chief Tan Sri Aziz Jaafar hold a press conference to announce various events organised for the celebrations. There will be open days at all RMN bases, on April 27 and 28, 2012.

During the press conference, the CN also gave some updates on RMN’s assets and development plans.

1) KD Tunku Abdul Rahman and KD Tun Razak has been declared operational. Both are undergoing operations.

2) The contract for the Submarine Escape and Rescue service (SMERV) had been awarded to Target Resources Sdn Bhd. The LOA was awarded recently. The contract had been in abeyance for the last four years as the Finance Ministry wants the Defence Ministry to renegotiate the price of the contract – RM8.2 million monthly for 20 years or RM98.4 million annually. Apparently the LOA was given at the original contract price. The CN said the mothership is being built in Singapore and is expected to be ready soon. In the meantime, RMN had worked out deal wtth regional navies in case of emergencies.

3) The LCS design will be finalised by July at the latest. The hull remained the Gowind and SETIS is the CMS. Only the other systems have yet to be confirmed. “It will be equipped with a gun capable of anti-aircraft capability, modern surface-to-surface missiles, medium-range SAM, a modern radar and a towed array sonar. The deck will be designed to accept the Cougar for take-offs and landings only,” the CN said. He declined to be more specific as in naming brands but look at my previous stories on the LCS on the type of weapons and systems to be chosen for the ships.
TS Aziz said the requirement of ASW helos remained and had been registered with the Defence Ministry. (He had previously said the Navy has the requirements for six ASW helicopters, so I am guessing they still want six).

4) The Navy has receive offers from the US Navy to purchase retired or soon to be retired, LPDs and frigates. He said the offer has been registered with the Defence Ministry. TS Aziz did not specify numbers, but I hazard to guess, it will be more likely one LPD and two frigates, if they wanted to finalise the offer. The LPDs available from the US are the Austin-class LPDs (three stwhile the frigates are the Oliver Hazard Perry class. Asked about the other ships available from navies from Europe, he said they have yet to receive any offer from this countries.

USS Rodney M Davis

USS Nashville

5) The navy has put forward plans to equip the Kedah-class ships with their “fitted for but not equipped” weapon systems. No details on the weapons under considerations but the Kedah class were originally designed for the RAM and the Exocets. I am assuming the Exocets are a safe bet if the Block 3s are chosen for the LCS while the RAM could be ditched if funding becomes an issue. Cheaper alternatives include the SADRAL or Tetral launchers from MBDA. RMN is hoping to secure the funding for the second part of RMK10 or the next plan (which is more likely).
6) KD Pari and KD Mutiara will be repaired. KD Mutiara repairs will be borne by Malaysian Marine and Heavy Engineering Sdn Bhd (MMHE). The ship caught fire while undergoing maintenance work at the yard in early January this year. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the tender to repair KD Pari has been made public two months ago.
7) The two training ship contracted to NGV Tech Sdn Bhd with the cooperation of DSME are under progress. The ships, to be armed with guns only is expected to be delivered by next year.

 

 

Did Saab got the FCR contract for LCS/SGPV?

From Malaysia defence Journal - Marhalim Abas

I am speculating from the statement below, that Saab may has just secured the contract for the fire control radar for the LCS/SGPV contract. I am guessing as no one will confirm or deny it but from the release Saab is saying that development and deliveries will take place between 2012-2017 which fits the LCS/SGPV time line. The contract amount is around US$67 million.It is interesting to note that I reported before that Saab was the favourite to supply the FCR for the programme.
Although Saab did not identify the FCR, we may assume it is the 9LV FCS. Read Here. If indeed the solution has been chosen for the SGPV/LCS it is interesting to note that Saab itself stated that “9LV FCS can also be combined with the 9LV gunfire-control and SAM modules that provide precision control for any naval gun or fire-and-forget SAM missile system” which means that any type of missile can be chosen.
Among the ships fitted with the 9LV FCS are theVisby-class corvettes, the ANZAC frigates, Flyvefisken-class fast patrol boats, Skjold-class fast patrol boats and the Al Bushra-class fast patrol boats
However, since I could be wrong, about this, lets wait for a confirmation first before saying too much about this thing.

From Saab
Saab receives order for fire control and radar systems
Defence and security company Saab has received an order for naval fire control and radar systems.The order amounts to SEK 450 million and involves business areas Security and Defence Solutions and Electronic Defence Systems.
The fire control system and radar systems will be integrated with a third party combat management system. Development and deliveries will take place 2012-2017.
The defence and security industry’s nature is such that information regarding customers and products sometimes is subject to confidentiality agreements between Saab and its customers. For this reason further information about this order will not be announced.
–Malaysian Defence

Boustead Naval Shipyard gets RM70m contract from Ministry of Defence

By Surin Murugiah of theedgemalaysia.com | The Edge Malaysia – Tue, Sep 11, 2012

Boustead Holdings Bhd subsidiary Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS) has received a letter of award for a contract worth RM70 million from the Ministry of Defence to supply and deliver spare parts and train the 23^rd Navy Frigate Squadron.
In a filing Tuesday, Boustead said a formal contract agreement between the government of and BNS will be signed at a later date.

Probe Ministry of Defence’s procurement deals

FROM TMI The Malaysian Insider – Wed, Sep 12, 2012

By Ida Lim

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 — Putrajaya should set up an independent committee in Parliament to investigate the Ministry of Defence's (Mindef) "controversial" contracts to buy defence vehicles, DAP's Tony Pua said today.

Pua's statement comes after the Sultan of Johor appeared to rap Mindef for its recent purchase of four Rapid Intervention Vehicles (RIV) for a total of RM2.76 million or RM690,000 each.
The Sultan of Johor had last Saturday reportedly compared an RIV to a personal vehicle that he bought for RM150,000, saying that "nobody should take advantage of the situation for personal gains when acquiring equipment for the Special Forces."
"The above acquisition follows a series of controversial procurement of defence vehicles by the Ministry of Defence that have raised major question marks over whether the taxpayers are getting value for their money," Pua (picture) said in a statement.
Pua said that such deals must be "investigated and scrutinised not (by) the Ministry of Defence itself, but by an independent Parliamentary Oversight Committee."
"Malaysians have no faith that the Ministry will be able to conduct an investigation that is fair and above board," Pua said.
He added that it would be "critical that the Ministry of Defence supports the set up of the Oversight Committee to prove that all is above board" in line with Putrajaya's transparency policy under the Government Transformation Programme (GTP).
"After all, if all the above transactions are of value for money to the government, then surely there is nothing to hide from this independent panel.
Pua listed a few "controversial" contracts, including Mindef's purchase of 12 helicopters for RM2.3 billion or RM193 million each in 2008 "despite the same model helicopter being acquired for only RM82.8million each by the Brazilian government."
Mindef had told the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) that the higher cost was due to "customisations" to the helicopters.
A RM6 billion contract given to Boustead Naval Shipyard last year for 6 offshore patrol vessels was "subsequently inflated" to RM9billion, said Pua.
DRB Hicom Bhd had last year received a RM7.55 billion contract for 257 units of 8x8 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC), but it was "exposed" that the company was buying them from a Turkish defence contractor for RM1.7 billion, said the PAC member.
Pua said it is "beyond reasonable belief" that "customisations" carried out by DRB-Hicom to the APS would "cause the bill to be inflated from RM1.7billion to RM7.55 billion."
Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said on Monday that he "will look into the differences in prices between the RIV awarded by Sultan Ibrahim priced at RM150,000 compared with RM690,000 sold by the supplier."
He said that he would check whether the four RIVs had different specifications from the Sultan of Johor's vehicle

Reply from the Minister

Kementerian Pertahanan telah memulakan siasatan terhadap isu pembelian Rapid Intervention Vehicle (RIV), kata Menteri Pertahanan Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Beliau berkata tindakan undang-undang akan dikenakan terhadap pihak yang
melakukan penyelewengan terhadap urusan pembelian aset tersebut.
"Saya telah kumpul maklumat daripada penyiasatan awal yang dilakukan dan
jika didapati dakwaan Sultan Johor Sultan Ibrahim itu benar, maka tindakan
perundangan akan dilakukan terhadap syarikat pembekal berkenaan.
"Kementerian tidak akan berkrompromi dengan sesiapa saja pun. Jika didapati
benar-benar berlakunya penyelewengan di dalam pembelian RIV ini, kita akan ambil
tindakan," katanya.
Beliau berkata demikian ketika mengulas siasatan yang dijalankan mengenai
perbezaan harga RIV yang didakwa Sultan Ibrahim lebih mahal daripada harga yang
dianugerahkan olehnya.
-- LAGI
ZAHID-RIV 2 (AKHIR) KUALA LUMPUR
Pada majlis ulang tahun Rejimen Gerak Khas ke-47 di Kem Iskandar, Mersing,
Johor, minggu lepas, baginda bertitah harga RIV yang dianugerahkan oleh baginda
(Sultan Johor) berharga RM150,000 berbanding RM690,000 yang dijual oleh pihak
pembekal.
Ahmad Zahid berkata kementeriannya tidak akan berkompromi, sama ada dengan
syarikat pembekal atau mana-mana pegawai yang masih bertugas atau sudah
meninggalkan kementerian, sekiranya mereka didapati terlibat dalam sebarang
penyelewengan dalam tawaran pembekalan RIV tersebut.
-- BERNAMA