The 80th Anniversary Armed Forces Exhibition

Those who managed to visit the Exhibition over the last three days at Dataran Merdeka Kuala Lumpur must count themselves lucky as there were exhibits that were rarely seen in public before this. I guess numerous blogs and military forums have uploaded their pictures of the exhibits so I do not want to replicate their efforts in this posting.

I just want to comment on these two oft overlooked field equipment that were the first time I saw being featured in such exhibitions. Its interesting that such services has kept up with the times.

The above picture also shows the new digital camouflage uniform as compared to the existing version.

I must add however that the trial digital camouflage painted on some of the army armoured vehicles seems to be just for the sake of showing something digital to the public, as I fail to see how it helps hide the vehicles.  

The camouflage shown by STRIDE before as part of their  Field Applied Camouflage System trial to me fits the bill much better as shown below. But I guess that's just my opinion.

Eh Denial?

Hmm it seems that the incident in the newspaper report I posted about has been denied by the DG of ESSCOM. However the abduction part of the incident is confirmed and the authorities are looking for the gunmen. Nonetheless I must say the script sounds familiar and stranger things has happened.

Esscom d-g denies fishermen kidnapping incident

Who Said Civilians Do Not Deserve Bravery Medals?

These fishermen definitely deserves bravery medals all around as they understand the concept of Hanruh by deliberately putting themselves in harm's way in order to avoid a potential international disaster.

Gunmen force plucky fisherman to guide them to resort on Pulau Mabul, taken to army camp instead.

BY RUBEN SARIO

KOTA KINABALU: A group of about 20 heavily-armed gunmen abducted a fisherman and demanded to be guided to a holiday resort on Pulau Mabul, Sabah, but were taken to an army camp on the island instead.

The incident began when the fisherman, who was in his boat, was approached by a speedboat off Pulau Umadal at about 6.30pm on Tuesday.

Garbed in dark clothes and armed with shotguns and pistols, the gunmen forced the fisherman to board their vessel and guide them towards Pulau Mabul where several resorts were located.

Upon approaching the island, the gunmen spotted a number of red lights on the shore, which fisherman said indicated the location of a resort.

As they got closer, the gunmen realised that it was a military camp and quickly turned their vessel around, heading towards Philippines waters.

The gunmen then spotted another fishing boat with eight men on board and forced them to board their vessel as well.

After several hours, one of the gunmen asked the nine fishermen what their race and religion were.

When told that all were Suluk and Muslim, the gunmen guided their boat close to another fishing vessel before ordering them to jump into the sea.

When contacted, Semporna district police chief Deputy Supt Mohd Firdaus Francis Abdullah said the incident occurred between 6.30 and 9.30pm on Tuesday.

"All victims were fishermen from around Semporna. As soon as they were freed and reached shore, they reported the incident to us,” he said.

"We are trying to determine where the group originated from based on the information from the abducted fishermen," Firdaus added.

When An Ignoramus Pretends To Be An Expert

I always say, when you read what is on the internet to take it with a pinch of salt and do your own research before accepting it as a Gospel truth. Simple fact is that many bloggers write based on their own prejudices , myself included, and it gets worse if the posts are written with a political agenda. However what gets my goat the most is when someone posts as if he is an expert on the subject, and to add more authority to what is alleged quotes that certain anonymous experts in the field is either his direct source, or is the person(s) who gave the tip off or other such instruments that will have no way to be independently verified by the reader.

I do not want to take too much time on this post but just wanted to show the most recent example of a biased "expert" who just wants to make political hay with his post linked HERE. I normally doesn't care to link or comment on such nonsense as I do not want to give them an increased page view count, but his obvious mishmash of the replacement of Mig-29N replacement program with the alleged non-flyability of the Su-30MKM obviously demonstrated his ignorance rather than his expertise.

I wonder if he even knows what are the jets practising the Merdeka Day flypast as appeared in the photographs in today's newspaper below. The sad part is many with the same bigoted view will lap it up even though it is painfully obvious that 4 units of the MKMs are being spared by the Armed Forces in order to celebrate the grand event although obviously their operational needs are very pressing. Enough said.

OPS Cantas Is Definitely Working!

It has been great to read about the successes of our Police Force in curbing crime by arresting those responsible in the local press. I can safely say that You Will Not Walk Alone. The most heartwarming is the story below who loves his son in the correct way in my opinion. There may have been mistakes before but you are doing the right thing for your son now Dad! But I am sure there will be noises from certain parties about lock-up deaths la, bla! bla! bla!

Lorryman hands wanted son over to cops 

Published: Tuesday August 27, 2013 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Tuesday August 27, 2013 MYT 6:52:59 AM 

MALACCA: A lorry driver drove his son to the police station after finding out that he is on the wanted list for being part of the notorious 04 gang.

The father managed to trace the whereabouts of his son, who went into hiding following newspaper reports that he was being sought by police.

It is learnt that the 48-year-old father drove his son from Johor Baru before handing him over to the police. 

The 24-year-old gang member was being tracked by police to facilitate investigation into the murder of a rival 08 gang member on May 4 in Cheng here after a brawl.

It is believed the lorry driver from Cheng had spoken to Malacca police chief Deputy Commissioner Datuk Chuah Ghee Lye and Supt Gunarajan a day before and decided to personally hand over his son.

State Deputy CID chief Supt P.R. Gunarajan said the psychological approach used by police in solving the gang fight had been successful as three other suspected 04 gang members had surrendered on Aug 22.

Supt Gunarajan said a 19-year-old youth surrended at the police beat at Ayer Keroh court complex while two others, aged 18 and 19, voluntarily came to the police headquarters the same day.

Malacca police had placed eight people on the wanted list following the May 4 gang clash. The other four suspects have yet to be found.

 

Historical Narrative Day In School

With the assistance of Mejar (Rtd) Nor Ibrahim a fellow blogger, I had managed to arrange for the appearance of  Dato Mejar (Rtd) Salehuddin, a PGB medal owner to give a narrative on his experiences in the armed forces at my daughter's secondary school and also to inspire the students to love the country and appreciate how the nation has arrived at the stage it is at now. This was as part of the Patriotic Month shedule of Events. The whole school turned up for the narrative and I must say the response was very good. In fact, invitations from other schools in the other area was also extended to Dato' . If you would like to have something similar to be arranged, please drop a line at the comments section.

In the meantime, here are some of the photos from the event.

AV8 RCWS News?

Further to our previous speculation on the AV8 RWS system to be supplied more than a year ago , another defence blog has reported that according to SIPRI database, 54 Rogue turrets has been ordered. This seems to confirm the earlier reports that Denel obtained the order for 69 x two man turrets fitted with the South African GI30 30mm main gun and 54 x missile turrets equipped with the GI30 30mm gun and Denel Dynamics Ingwe anti-tank missile system. The order also includes the supply of 216 laser-guided Ingwe missiles.(So Sipri was wrong here as they double counted 69 + 54 = 123 turrets). How I wished that the Missile Rogue ATGW armed was selected as it would give these battle taxis a powerful punch on their own similar to the 30mm armed units.