New Interceptor Crafts For The Malaysian Navy

The Royal Malaysian Navy has recently announced that they have acquired new high speed interceptor boats that will operate out of the Bunga Mas 5 (BM5) that will act as the mother ship in her role to protect the Sabah east coast against potential threats.

The BM5 In Port Klang In June 2014

The BM5 which will serve as a forward sea base equipped with high-speed interceptor boats, radar surveillance and helicopters. The three interceptor combat boats (CB90) will be used together with the rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIBs) that are currently being used by the navy’s elite sea commando unit (Paskal) and two new boats that were recently acquired by the navy – the Silver Brize and P38 craft.“The Bunga Mas 5 is the right choice to be placed in the area as it has a surveillance radar system and is equipped with helicopters to carry out night operations over long distances,” said navy chief Admiral Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Jaafar.

The P38 craft seems to have been purchased from UES Marine, a division of United Engineering Services LLC, Oman. Their Signature Interceptor Vessel the P-38, these UES interceptor boats can be tailor made as per the customers' requirements. The P38 is a high performance interceptor craft designed for interdiction of hostile vessels in coastal and offshore waters. It is an open boat well-suited for boarding, beaching and interdiction operations. It features advanced deep V step design hull which is 3D infused with advanced composite materials in epoxy resin for optimum power to weight ratio and maximum strength. The hull form and design affords maximum comfort for this type of craft allowing the crew to operate effectively with minimum fatigue. The P38 is designed to accommodate up to 12 crew and is equipped for missions of 12 to 24 hours. 

The P38 can be fitted to meet customised mission requirements, such as triple 50 caliber machine gun mounts. To protect your crew, ballistic NIJ Level lll extended height paneling can be installed into the sides of the cockpit.

Unfortunately the Silver Brize boats I am unable to identify but once I do i will surely include details of it here later.

Jangan Jadi Jahil Lah!

Hakikatnya bagi mereka yang hanya tahu menjerit di Facebook tapi jahil fakta, Malaysia sudah lama menghantar pasukan tentera hadapannya ke bumi Palestin untuk berhadapan dengan tentera rejim Israel.

Walaupun hanya dilengkapi dengan kenderaan perisai usang kerana pihak pembangkang selalu tanya, "mau bili itu senjata mau lawan siapa", pada dasarnya bila negara-negara Islam bersatu satu masa nanti dan akhirnya mengisytiharkan jihad, berbanggalah yang negara kita dan negara serantau iaitu Indonesia dan Brunei(yang menempatkan anggotanya bersama kontijen kita) akan beraksi dari awal lagi.

Tak percaya? Tanyalah bekas-bekas tentera-tentera pengaman kita yang pernah bertugas di Bosnia-herzegovina kenapa Harimau Malaya digeruni pihak serbia dan croatia. Ingat fasal bola ke?

Tidak perlulah elemen-elemen sokongan termasuk dari TUDM berada di sana kalau setakat tentera kita setakat nak "bersiar-siar" di sana. Bila jihad sebenar berlaku, bala tentera kita tidak akan masuk medan dengan mata buta nanti, InsyaAllah.

Jadi sabarlah hati, tawakkallah dengan percaturan Allah. Dia maha mengetahui apa yang Dia kehendaki.

Malbatt 850-1 Kibarkan Bendera Tradisi Pengaman Malaysia

MARAKAH (LUBNAN), 14 Julai — Perjalanan darat dari ibu negara Lubnan, Beirut, ke sini mengambil masa kira-kira dua jam merentasi kawasan luar bandar yang dipenuhi kebun pisang, ladang oren dan buah zaitun yang tumbuh subur.

mykmu.net

We do not forget. Congrats!

As mentioned in series of tweets by the Prime Minister, we have never forgotten those who were abducted in Sabah waters. Congrats for the successful operations to recover the abductees.

I have just been briefed by@PDRMsia that the two women abducted from a resort in Sabah last Apr have been rescued by our authorities.

7:27pm - 30 May 14

We are taking steps to facilitate the return of the Chinese national to her home as soon as possible.

7:27pm - 30 May 14

No ransom paid to secure their release. Success due to cooperation of Malaysia & Philippines security forces. I thank all involved.

7:28pm - 30 May 14

Sea Basing ? Not Such A New Concept

When the navy chief Admiral Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Jaafar espoused the concept of Sea Basing and then further elaborated by the Minister of Defence himself, many has jumped on the comment bandwagon as if it is such a new concept. Many may have forgotten that the Navy has used their MPSS for such a purpose at a time in their history before as evidenced by this photo off the Sabah coast where the Inderapura played the role of mothership for the Jerong class FAC-Gs.

It has also been reported that a decommissioned oil rig has been proposed to be used as a logistics base or mothership but to me that is a bit wild as such oil rigs typically ride high over the water and easy ingress and egress for the vessels that they are supposed to support may be difficult, amongst others.

The Oil Rig Solution as mentioned in the MOD tweet "Hishammuddin Hussein ‏@HishammuddinH2O May 9 

Kita boleh! “@mykamarul: H2O: ESSCOM:"Sea Basing" suggested by TS PTL doable wit designated route by @Zahid_Hamidi pic.twitter.com/ZaCuvQvChV”

As for using the existing remaining MPSSs or the Auxilliary ships BM5 and BM6 as the motherships, I quite agree but the lead time may take a long time as the MPSS would surely need to be replaced by a new class of MRSS in their current logistics role while the BM5 and BM6 are still preoccupied with their missions in the far oceans. 

So what is the navy to do to then to materialise the creation of a small naval base offshore on urgent basis? There is another methodology of sea-basing that the Navy has successfully implemented in their efforts to safeguard our territory before, that is to build up artificial reefs like we have in the Spratlys where we created some of the bases overnight in fact by grounding barges and building up the land around it. In fact since the land borders for the ESSCOMM is clearly defined, we could even build it at a proper but quick pace and give it a proper naval base functionality than a rush job like the proposed oil rig solution.

Ubi Reef

Sometimes the simpler method could be the best don't you think?

DSA 2014 - Hmmmmm Humbug?

I initially did not want to attend the show this year as I suspected that there is nothing much new that will be on show. Nonetheless a relative asked me to attend as he wanted to ask me for assistance in business networking so I relented and attended on the third day, the first time doing so. It was as I suspected but since it was already at the tail end of the show, nothing much was being announced when I was there.Therefore this time I will just make a pictorial of what captured my attention the most during my brief visit.

The star of the show would surely be the AV8s on show where both the AFV-30 and IFV-25 variant is on show. I was informed that 11 units are now ready to be inducted into the army in the near future as the first delivery.

And from the DEFTECH representative that I met that was premiering their AV6 or actually the rebadged PARS 6x6, I was informed that there will finally be a field testing of 6x6 armoured vehicles in order to fulfil the UNIFIL requirements. No wonder there was a lot 6x6 units being displayed except for a particular brand from a neighbouring country that previously claimed the contract was already awarded to them. Hopefully this will be a nucleus order for the full replacement of the Condor fleet of battle taxis.

The AV6 is currently displayed with the proposed weapon,

25 mm STOP Remote Controlled Stabilized Naval Gun System

The emblem although different from PARS belies its origins, mayhaps now in the form of an ODE to Proton?

Deftech also took the opportunity to showcase their HMMWV in partnership with AM General which a friend informed me was trialed in the north sometime last year.

Also in association with Bell Helicopters, an USMC UH-1Y 'Huey" made an appearance as the solo static helicopter being openly displayed to public although an AW139 was in one of the booths. The Huey was flown all the way from Afghanistan in a C5 and assembled in Subang before being flown in to the PWTC open carpark where it was displayed.

And now lets continue to the eye candies shall we. The local agent for Rotinor's divescooter for use by the Malaysian Special Forces creative costuming of their promoters certainly attracted a lot of visitors to their booth. Hopefully it is accepted into service soon.

It was claimed that the use of the leash would allow a team of 6 to be transported by a single scooter. Interesting right?

And finally don't forget to YUK visit Indo Defence 2014.

And Yet Some Asks Our Navy To Use Prahus To Patrol

An interesting read on how the MH370 incident and subsequent SAR efforts has revealed the capability gaps of the nations' military involved, in this case in particular the China's maritime capabilities.However China's booming military spending as detailed in this other article may rectify the gaps in the long run.

China-Japan Military Balance

Yes China will learn from this incident but pity Malaysia's own military. I personally do not think that our military will get what they need even though their shortfalls are now plain to see with only a single navy frigate and three C-130H involved in the SAR efforts in the Indian Ocean even though we are the primary nation affected. Nonetheless the DSA 2014 has just started today and hopefully we can get some good news on military procurement despite the odds.

Published: Sunday April 13, 2014 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Sunday April 13, 2014 MYT 8:36:56 AM

China’s tech gap exposed in MH370 search mission 

Ability in doubt: Chinese patrol ship 'Haixun 01' picked up electronic pulsing signals in the Indian Ocean on April 4 and again on April 5. But some foreign experts are sceptical about whether China's equipment is advanced enough to obtain signals from as deep as 4,500m under the sea. - EPA

BEIJING: China has the ability to detect signals sent from deep in the sea, but the month-long hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has exposed technological drawbacks in China’s maritime search and rescue outfit, experts said.

Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01 picked up electronic pulsing signals in the Indian Ocean on April 4 and again on April 5. But some foreign experts are sceptical about whether China’s equipment is advanced enough to obtain signals from as deep as 4,500m under the sea.

The ship is equipped with maritime detection equipment, including one black box sonar detector and two underwater robots, said Wang Liangyu, head of maritime survey at the Donghai Navigation Safety Administration under the Transport Ministry.

“All of them were imported,” he said. “The black box detector, which was made by the same company that produces black boxes, has a maximum detection range of 5,000m.”

The adoption of such advanced technologies has enabled China to catch “ping” signals from the black boxes, he told Shanghai newspaper Jiefang Daily.

However, searchers need more time to analyse and verify the signals to see whether they are consistent with the black boxes – the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.

Many Chinese applauded Haixun 01’s findings, but say China still lags behind other nations when it comes to maritime search and rescue equipment.

“I’m proud that it was our ship that first detected the (suspected) signals,” said an Internet user who goes under the name biedong1925, “but it is a pity that none of the equipment used was made in China”.

Some experts said more resources and investment should be allocated to China’s maritime search and rescue outfit development.

“There are a lot of things that China should do to upgrade its equipment used in maritime search and rescue operations,” said Cui Yiliang, an expert on ships and naval armament in Beijing.

“We must speed up the research and development of autonomous underwater vehicles, or AUVs,” he said. 

“High-tech underwater vehicles such as the Bluefin-21 play an irreplaceable role in deep-sea detection and retrieval operations, but I haven’t read any reports about similar equipment developed in China.”

The Australian navy vessel Ocean Shield is carrying a Bluefin-21 in its current search and will use the sub to scan for wreckage once the black box is located.

AUV played a critical role in locating a lost Air France jet in 2011, two years after it crashed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. A team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the United States used an AUV equipped with side-scan sonar to locate the aircraft about 3,900m underwater. In China, the AUV is still in its infancy and far from being operational, Cui said.

In November, the Qianlong-1 unmanned autonomous underwater vehicle completed its first application test in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Co-developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Harbin Engineering University, it can travel to a depth of 6,000m, and is tasked to explore the seabed and collect hydrological data. The vehicle is on a trial run and marks the first time a Chinese AUV has been used for a scientific expedition, according to the academy.

Meanwhile, a military observer said the Chinese navy should improve its use of sea-based air platforms in maritime search and rescue operations.

The PLA navy’s missile destroyer Haikou, replenishment ship Qiandaohu, and amphibian landing craft Kunlunshan and Jinggangshan are taking part in the search mission led by Australia in a remote part of the Indian Ocean.

However, the fleet “apparently failed to bring enough helicopters”, said the observer in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, who declined to be named.

The two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers of the US Navy that had participated in the early search for MH370, the USS Pinckney and USS Kidd, each carried two MH-60R Seahawk helicopters, which flew sorties from dawn to dusk.

“Each Arleigh Burke-class destroyer can carry up to four helicopters, which means it has a strong capability to search on the sea,” the observer said, adding Chinese destroyers and frigates can carry only one helicopter.

The amphibian landing craft Kunlunshan and Jinggangshan can each embark up to four helicopters, he said. 

“But judging from news reports, they didn’t bring that number of helicopters. The only guess I can make is that our navy still needs to learn from the US Navy in the use of sea-based air platforms.”

Littoral Combat Ship - Finally ?

I myself cannot remember when was supposed to be the actual launch date :-)

Published: Friday April 4, 2014 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Friday April 4, 2014 MYT 7:27:55 AM

BHIC to build first littoral combat ship in 2015 

KUALA LUMPUR: Boustead Heavy Industries Corp Bhd (BHIC) expects to build the first littoral combat ship (LCS) early next year, under a RM9bil contract awarded to its associate company.

This, coupled with the group’s growing maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) business, will help the company improve its financial performance in the current financial year ending Dec 31, 2014.

“We are confident of doing much better this year. BHIC’s order book for shipbuilding and MRO for this year is more than RM500mil,” managing director Tan Sri Ahmad Ramli Mohd Nor told reporters after the company’s AGM yesterday.

He said the LCS programme was ahead of schedule and that actual work at the group’s shipyard in Lumut, Perak was expected to commence once the LCS project contract was finalised.

“We are already more or less at 35%. A lot of pre-planning is being done,” he said. Project revisions and cost overuns related to the LCS project hit the group last year as its associate company Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd reported loss of RM23.2mil in the financial year of 2013.

Ahmad Ramli said the revisions took into consideration the negotiated scope of work with various stakeholders, including the navy and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). He added that 80% of contracts with the OEMs was already in place.

The building of the ships required a lot of imported high-end equipment, something which the company was wary about, he said, adding that the projected cost could vary with the value of the ringgit fluctuating against major currencies.

“We purchased a lot of equipment from overseas. So the movements of the ringgit do have a big impact on our shipbuilding business. But the project is on track and will start in the first quarter of next year,” chairman Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin said.

According to The Edge Financial Daily on this matter, 35% of the project has already been completed as follows ;

On the RM9 billion littoral combat ship contract from the Defence Ministry, Ahmad Ramli said Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd, an associate of BHIC, has progressed around 35% of the project, mostly on the aspects of the design work, training of manpower and improvement of infrastructure.

“The actual work itself will start in Lumut in the first quarter of next year,” he added.

Yup Now It Is A Real Submarine, But...

Yes ladies and gentlemen, a full fledged submarine has finally joined the Task Force for SAR MH370 as reported below. Nonetheless before you start asking why our own submarines are not joining, do take note that The Trafalgar Class HMS Tireless is a nuclear attack submarine that is far more capable than our own diesel submarine as you can read here. So unless you allow Malaysia to follow Brunei footsteps and increase our defence budget to record of more than 10% of our national budget, please hold your tongue as this incident has clearly shown our defence capabilities shortfalls due to petty sniping of our defence spending prior to this. Anyway Malaysia even if we can afford it will never be allowed to join the nuclear submarine navy club so let's be clear about that shall we. But who knows, maybe our own Perdana class SSK diesel submarines are actually steaming towards the SAR area as it is their nature to announce their journey before arriving at their destination, exactly as HMS Tireless has done when her arrival was only announced upon arrival around a week after being ordered to move from an operational tasking to the search area. See how much details are left out even the this article gives much more information than article posted here.

Published: Wednesday April 2, 2014 MYT 8:30:00 AM
Updated: Wednesday April 2, 2014 MYT 8:32:19 AM 

MH370 search: Sub joins hunt ahead of Najib’s visit to Perth 

PERTH: The protracted search for missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 was boosted Wednesday by the arrival of a British submarine in the Indian Ocean ahead of a visit to Australia by Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

The personal jet of Oscar-winning New Zealand movie director Peter Jackson is also now reportedly being used in the multinational hunt for the plane that vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board.

Despite extensive scouring of remote Indian Ocean waters by planes and ships southwest of Perth where Malaysia believes the plane went down, nothing has been found so far that would indicate a crash site.

“No significant developments to report,” the Australian Maritime Safety Authority tweeted after 10 planes returned from flying sorties on Tuesday evening in a now familiar update on drawing a blank.

But in a boost to the search effort, Britain’s Royal Navy said submarine HMS Tireless has arrived in the area and “with her advanced underwater search capability will be able to contribute to the attempts to locate the missing plane”.

While planes, ships and helicopters have all been deployed, it is the first submarine to be drafted in.

Britain’s HMS Echo is also due in the search zone shortly to assist Australia's Ocean Shield naval vessel, which is fitted with a US-supplied black box detector and is expected to arrive on Friday.

The battery-powered signal from the black box – which records flight data and cockpit voice communications that could indicate what happened to the plane – usually lasts only about 30 days, with time fast running out to find it.

Australia has warned against expectations of quick success in the difficult task of recovering the black box from the deep and vast seas.

Retired Australian air chief marshal Angus Houston, who is heading a new coordination centre in Perth, reiterated Wednesday that the odds were stacked against them.

“The reality is it’s the most complex and challenging search and recovery operation I’ve ever seen,” he told national radio.

“If we don’t find anything on the surface, we’ll have to think about what we do next.” 

Prime Minister Najib is due in Perth on Wednesday evening to tour the air base being used as a staging post and meet with his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott, as well as Houston. – AFP

 

Lost In The Noise

I would like to share something here that speaks volumes about the unsung heroes in aviation, and how a tragedy affects them as they are human after all. And it is also a great illustration of how something can get lost in the noise or tuned out in the great flood of information as this article was published one week prior to me reading it. So before casting the first stone, ask yourself if you are worthy.

What happened on March 8 still haunts personnel on duty 

Published: Sunday March 23, 2014 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Sunday March 23, 2014 MYT 7:19:30 AM 

PETALING JAYA: A sense of responsibility for the missing MH370 has taken a toll on Air Traffic Controllers on duty the morning the plane disappeared on March 8.

There were 40 personnel on duty during the shift, including the Radar Controller, Flight Planner and Flight Data officers, who were directing the aircraft before handing over responsibility to their Vietnamese counterparts.

A senior Department of Civil Aviation officer told The Star some of those on duty can’t help but dwell on what happened to the plane.

“They have come to talk to me and kept asking why, why why, this had happened,” said the officer. “Despite assuring them they had carried out their duties, some can’t let go of the incident.”He said all emergency protocol was followed immediately after MH370 disappeared off the radar.

During such emergencies there are three phases which must be followed. The initial Alert phased in this case required the air traffic controllers or ATCs to contact their counterparts in Vietnam. Subsequently Changi (Singapore) is contacted to determine if they had MH370 on their radar or if they were in communication with the missing aircraft.“This had to been done within three minutes of the emergency.”

In the subsequent Uncertainty phase, ATCs will contact all aircraft in the vicinity to determine if they were in communication with MH370 or had the plane on their radar or had visual sighting of it.

This must be done within 15 minutes and when no one could detect the plane the final Distress phase was activated.

Two search and rescue trained officers are on standby during every shift and they immediately opened the Aeronautical Rescue Co­­ordination Centre or ARCC. “The officers called the air force, which confirmed they had detected the plane on their military radar but it had diverted from its path.“We tried communicating with MH370 again but it didn’t work.“By the time it dropped off military radar, we had already begun planning where to search for the plane,” he said.

Two weeks on, the DCA officer, who is among those coordinating the search and rescue mission at the ARCC, said he is baffled by the incident.“We are working hard to follow up on every lead we get and we’ve been grateful for all the help we’ve been getting from other countries,” he said.However he expressed concern that time was running out.“I am worried, the decisions we make involve people’s lives and so many countries and public sentiment,” he said.

You Should Be More Careful.

A Deputy Minister should be more careful when answering in Parliament, especially on matters of national security.

KENYATAAN MEDIA YB DATUK ABD RAHIM BAKRI,TIMBALAN MENTERI PERTAHANAN 

Unit Komunikasi Korporat, Kementerian Pertahanan telah mengeluarkan kenyataan berikut:

Jawapan Pada Sesi Parlimen
Kuala Lumpur, 27 Mac 2014 

Berhubung kenyataan saya dalam perbahasan titah Di Raja di Parlimen semalam (26 Mac 2014) yang mengatakan pesawat MH370 berpatah balik (turn back) berkemungkinan setelah menerima arahan daripada pusat kawalan, saya ingin menjelaskan bahawa ia hanya merupakan andaian saya semata-mata serta kemungkinan-kemungkinan yang boleh berlaku.

Selepas membuat semakan, saya ingin tegaskan bahawa andaian saya adalah tidak tepat.

Finally The NGOs Are Getting Into The Act

Many believed that the world navies' combat submarines are the most suitable to conduct the search for MH370 wreckage. Believe me they are not. Never mind let them live with their delusions. There is now good news, finally the most suitable submersibles to conduct such deep sea searches are being readied pending identification of the most suitable search area according to this news report by the Telegraph UK. Three ABYSS deep sea search submarines which can dive to depths of 6,000 metres and stay submerged for up to 24 hours will be deployed by German and and American oceanographers from the Helmholtz Oceanography Institute and Woods Hole Institute once wreckage of flight MH370 is sighted. 

Peter Herzig, centre, and Klas Lackschewitz stand behind the German 'Abyss' Photo: Carsten Rehder/EPA

 

The ABYSS submarine, which is equipped with special sensors, cameras and an ultra sensitive Sonar system, resembles a torpedo and is painted yellow to make it easier to identify. The submarine's comparatively small size means that it can be flown in for deployment. In the spring of 2011, the three submarines were used successfully to track down the wreckage of the lost Air France flight 447 Airbus passenger plane which disappeared without trace over the Atlantic in 2009 with 228 passengers on board. 

I can only hope that this is only the first of many future NGOs that will join the search effort complementing the Navies'own assets that are being deployed to the operations. Good Luck!

Edited 1430H 25/March/2014.

Mini submarine Bathysaurus XL is able to dive to extreme depths of up to 6,000 meters.

Argus Remote System built the mini submarine and its holding company Swire Seabed. If needed, they are ready to send submarine to fly to Australia to assist in the search for the missing aircraft from Malaysia Airlines.

 PHOTO: ØRJAN Deisz

Unfortunately it only came out in an Norwegian articles here but it seems another deep sea recovery organisation that was involved in the AF447 search has also offered their assistance. At this time, any offer including the offer by Swire Seabed Mr. Frode Gaupås, who is operations director at Swire Seabed , who said "We are ready to join the search if we are asked about it". The Bergen-based company Swire Seabed AS owns one of the few mini submarine that can dive to 6,000 meters and thus can be used for this type of mission.We are ready to send it down on a cargo plane to Australia. said Gaupås. (From the translated article) In this time of need, methinks its best we take up on any such offer given to us don't you think.