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LoginRMAF's Sukhois to arrive in May one year late
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15 Feb 2007
Adrian David
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KUALA LUMPUR: After a one-year delay, the first six Sukhoi Su-30MKM jets will be delivered to the Royal Malaysian Air Force in May.
The RMAF ordered 18 of the Russian jet fighters in 2003 in a US$900 million (RM3.24 billion) deal.
After India and Vietnam, Malaysia will become one of the largest operators of the high-tech jet.
Indonesia has ordered 12, while Thailand is mulling the purchase.
Defence industry sources said the RMAF was ready to take delivery of the jets as the crew of pilots, engineers, technicians and ground support staff had completed their training.
Sources said India was the natural choice for the RMAF crew training as English was the medium of instruction.
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is said to be as sembling 140 Su-30MKI for the Indian Air Force.
HAL will provide technical support for equipment such as auxiliary power units, air-cooling systems and spares for the RMAF.
A local service and maintenance centre is also being established.
In December, information technology company Heitech Padu Bhd won a 13-year, RM258 million contract to design, construct, supply, fit, assemble and maintain a Sukhoi flight simulator.
The multi-role Sukhois will gradually replace the RMAFs 14 two-decade-old US-made F-5E jets and complement its 18 MiG-29N Fulcrums.
"Part of the delay is attributed to the fitting of non-Israeli components (as Malaysia does not have diplomatic ties with the Jewish state).
"Russian and French-made avionics replaced the Indian-Israeli-French combination, while the Israeli electronic counter-measure system was changed to a South African variant," a source said.
Those familiar with the package said it would have the "NIIP N011M Bars" passive electronically scanned-array radar, Kh-35 (AS-20 Kayak), Kh-31A (AS-17 Krypton) and Indo-Russian Brahmos (anti-ship) missiles.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Thursday/National/20070215094508/Article/local1_html
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Originally posted by glock:Wonder how come when Indonesians buy ex Israeli A4s in the past and now maybe Israeli UAVs, there is no violent reaction ; usually not even a whimper.
Also, when Turks had their F4s upgraded by the Israelis .............
because they are secular countries while malaysia is considered islamic
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Magazines like ADJ and Tempur(being Malaysian in origin)are less believable than more established ones.
However, just a cusory look at the report will tell you that they are going to have a lot of maintainence issues..once again. Issues like maintainence, no proper planned future upgrades, good comms links, etc will haunt them in the time to come. Seems like a vicious cycle similar to most other stuffs they buy. Anyway, that`s why they`re cheaper to buy.
But at least they will have more than just 8 (hornets) combat-ready aircrafts in thier air-force. However, I doubt the Sukhois will be combat ready(i.e fully integrated into the air-force)anytime soon either.
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Magazines like ADJ and Tempur(being Malaysian in origin)are less believable than more established ones
how can they are not relieable? just because they are malaysian? that is called prejudice pal. LOL. Prasun K Sengupta (the writer of both articles) are very credible millitary journalist.
RMAF culture have change with time. I dont think there would be any problem. In fact they are fixing the problem by buying this AC.Edited by tankfanatic 17 Mar `07, 7:12PM
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