Report: Malaysia May Seek India's Help To Train Pilots To Fly Russian Fighter Jets
Malaysia might send pilots to India for training on how to fly sophisticated Russian-made fighter jets that Malaysia has purchased, a news report said Friday.The Royal Malaysian Air Force wants to train 72 officers as pilots and weapons system personnel to handle 18 Sukhoi-30MKM jets that are being handed over to Malaysia in stages, Col. Syed Salim Syed Abu Bakar told Malaysian reporters in the Siberian city of Irkutsk.
Most of them will be trained in Malaysia, but some might be sent to India, which has agreed in principle to provide training for Malaysian officers on the use of multi-role combat aircraft, Syed Salim was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.
India's air force also uses Sukhoi jets, but Malaysia's purchases are different because they have been integrated with systems from other countries, including South African laser and missile warning systems and British cryptography systems, Syed Salim added.
Air force officials familiar with the issue in Malaysia could not immediately be contacted.
Syed Salim's comments came after Malaysian air force officials received the two Sukhoi planes Thursday from jet manufacturer Irkut. Both jets will be delivered to Malaysia next month, while the remaining 16 will be sent in stages over the next year.
Malaysia ordered the planes in 2003 in a US$900 million deal that officials have said will make Malaysia one of Asia's largest operators of the high-tech jet after India and Vietnam. (International Herald Tribune)
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Labels: Malaysia - General
posted by The Malaysian. at 5/25/2007 08:36:00 PM
5 Comments:
This news doesn't inspire any confidence in our future ability to operate this sophisticated plane.
The Sukhoi-30KM's are aerodynamically very advanced, but some of its electronic systems are inferior to Western fighters. So it has been enhanced by some systems purchased from other countries - South Africa and Britain. This is a "Rojak" plane, and there is a risk of it becoming "Rojak" quality, after spending billions on the plane.
vendor doesnt train? really beats me.
Good Lord! Shouldn't the training bit be discussed before making the purchase? So now we have purchased, and what if India decided to back out on the training programme for our pilots? Who are we going to turn to before these Sukhois turned into white elephants, AGAIN! Everybody is so eager to make quick bucks in such military purchases, that this one important item has been missed out which under normal commercial dealings, would not have happened. The Ruskies could have trained our pilots for free, but to get the Indians to do it, there is going to be one hefty bill to pay, and guess what, someone is making money again.
Our government buy Russian fighter jets, but the Russian don't train our airforce pilots. Instead, the Russian train Malaysian to be astronaut in the outer space.
It just showed that how stupid the authority concerned are i.e. the minister of defence??
What are they trying to show our neighbour countries/the whole world? That Malaysian can (BOLIH) "fly" into space orbit but cannot (TAK BOLIH) fly a Russion fighter jet?
well, the Nottingham genius will come out with some remarks and everything will be forgotten in time. Again.
God save this country! we are hopeless!
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