Malaysian Army - Modernization
The Malaysian Army in the early 1980s was essentially a light infantry force of about 80,000 strong. Its traditional character was being transformed, however, by the acquisition of armored vehicles. The army had formerly not incorporated armor because of its marginal utility in jungle terrain or guerrilla warfare.
As of the early 1980s army vehicles included light tanks, armored cars, armored scout cars, and armored personnel carries. A large number of armored fighting vehicles and personnel carriers were on order. Arms included 5.5-inch guns, 105mm howitzers, 81mm mortars, 89mm rocket launchers, 120mm recoilless rifles, anti-tank guided missiles, and antiaircraft guns. The basic infantry man's weapon was the M-16.
Within a few years after the economic turmoil that hit the East Asian region in 1997 Malaysia was on its way to recovering from the economic turmoil, which was evident from the resumption of the MAF modernization program when Malaysia announced in 2001 its intention to purchase main battle tanks for the Army.
The Malaysian Defense ministry nominated the Malaysian company DRB-Hicom Defence Technologies (Deftech) a prime contractor to locally produce and supply 257 armored personnel carriers based on the Turkish 8x8 Pars wheeled armored vehicle. The Pars, developed and produced developed by the Turkish company FNSS was based on a design made by the US company GPV. The value of the Malaysian 'letter of intent' was worth over worth about US$2.5 billion. Deliveries were to span over seven years. The prototype APC was expected to be delivered for testing to the Malaysian Army by 2011.
Deftech was to build 12 variants from the base vehicle, including personnel carrier, anti-tank weapon carrier, command and control and anti-aircraft weapon vehicles. The Pars (Anatolian Leopard) armored personnel carrier was designed and developed by the Turkish FNSS company, based on a design of U.S. based General Purpose Vehicles (GPV). The 8x8 configured Pars APC was officially unveiled in 2005 as a basis for a family of armored vehicles addressing Turkish Land Forces Command requirement. Heavier and lighter configurations ranging from 6x6 to 10x10 are also proposed by GPV and FNSS.
The Malaysian Army opened an international tender for the procurement of 6x6 wheeled armored vehicles to replace the Sibmas and Condor wheeled armored vehicles. The SIBMAS was a Belgian amphibious infantry fighting vehicle produed on an order-by-order basis only for the Malaysian Army. The Condor 4x4 wheeled armored personnel carrier was designed by Thyssen-Henschel of Germany and manufactured by Henschel Wehrtechnik GmbH. The total number of units required was about 400.
Hyundai Rotem submitted the K806 Wheeled Armored Personnel Carrier. Hanwha Defense Systems proposed the Tigon 6A—6 Armored Wheeled Vehicle. Test and evaluation were conducted in Gwangju and Changwon, and proposals were submitted in November 2020 year, and evaluation results were expected in February 2022.
Aside from the requirement for 400 new 6×6 wheeled armored vehicles, the Malaysian Army was also expected to tender for 36 new 4×4 armored vehicles, which could be for requirements by the service’s United Nations Peacekeeping Operations.
By 2012, with 11 AgustaWestland A109s fully integrated into the Army Air Corps reconnaissance squadron, the Malaysian army was looking toward building a squadron of six to 12 attack helicopters, although this program was on hold temporarily due to budget cuts. Plans also callled for a tactical transport helicopter squadron. Originally, this would have entailed the transfer of the RMAF’s S-61 fleet to the army but this had been scrapped because the RMAF has been unable to obtain funding to replace the S-61 with the EC725s on a one-for-one basis. The army since prioritized the attack helicopter squadron but the tactical transport helicopter squadron remains part of its long-term goal.
On February 1, 2015 MD Helicopters, Inc. (MDHI) announced that it succeeded in its bid to supply six (6) MD 530G Scout Attack Helicopters to Malaysia’s Ministry of Defense. MDHI will deliver the launch helicopters to Malaysian Army Aviation (Pasukan Udara Tentera Darat; PUTD) beginning in the fourth quarter of 2016, with the full fleet to deliver by the end of Q1 2017. “Our legacy is firmly rooted in service of the warfighter; delivering fast, agile, highly-capable scout attack helicopters for the protection of the United States and our partner nations,” said Lynn Tilton, Chief Executive Officer for MD Helicopters. “Perfectly suited for Malaysia’s operational environment, we are honored that the MD 530G – our next generation light scout attack helicopter – was selected by the Malaysian Prime Minister, Minister of Defence and the Chief Defence Force (CDF) to be the newest addition to the Malaysian Armed Forces.”
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