Malaysia Allocates US$2.6B For New Assets

MALAYSIA has earmarked a total US$2.6 billion for the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) to acquire assets which will beef up the MAF’s fighting strength.

According to the country’s defence minister Khaled Nordin, the big-ticket items include 105mm howitzers, surface-to-surface missiles (SSM) for the Lekiu-class frigate KD Jebat, and three units of medium altitude long endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial systems (UAS).

Aside from that, he added that the defence ministry would keep a close watch on the progress of other major assets, including the lead vessel of the Maharaja-Lela-class littoral combat ship 1 (LCS 1) which stands at 96.52% complete, recently beginning to undergo its harbour acceptance test (HAT) and sea acceptance test (SAT).

LCS 2 has been launched while LCS 3 is expected to be launched next January. The progress for LCS 2, LCS 3, LCS 4, LCS 5, are 86.61%, 76.6%, 65.05%, and 48.72% respectively. Additionally, construction of the second batch of littoral mission ships (LMS) is also anticipated to attain 13.8% completion by June 2025.

Next, the US$888 million procurement of 18 FA-50M Block 20 light fighter aircraft from Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has now reached 48% progress. With the initial batch of two aircraft on schedule for an October 2026 delivery date. Furthermore, the two Leonardo ATR-72 maritime patrol aircraft will be delivered to the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) in June and September of 2026 respectively. -shp/adj/dl (Pix:MINDEF,LUNAS)