That's the reason why they claim the entire South China Sea. To be self-sufficient. China is looking for a secure source of energy. Middle-East is mostly under US control, except for Iran. Even so, the sea lanes from Iran to China is too long and too vulnerable. Chinese navy simply didn't have the resources to secure the sea lanes. Russia is ally now, but that can change. They fought several border clashes in the past. Spratly Island on the other hand, are nearby and within easy reach. All the countries around the area is militarily weak and can easily be bullied into an agreement favorable to china.

ALmost all fighter jets got side mirror. look at video below. skip to 3:51.

Realisticly, our options are very limited. ASEAN is a joke. and forming an ASEAN military alliance is as near to impossible as you can get. Asking the west for help mean's they will ask something of us in return, and most probably it'll be more then we can afford.

Blame the flip flop nature of our decision makers.

During Vietnam war, US soldiers often fired a M72 LAW at general location of a VC snipers. While not as good as specialized anti personal weapons, shrapnels from RPG-22s 360 gram warhead will still be able to cut down several peoples group close together which is the case with this unarmed Ukrainian soldiers.

You forgot about the defected Ukrainian Soldiers

When you are flush with money. You can buy now and plan later.

Because that American ship happen to be nearby.

Even if they did send the submarine, TLDM will not advertise it until after the mission is over. Advertising the destination of our sub mean's the "others" will be waiting there with all the hydrophones they can spare to gather intel on our sub acoustic signature. Plus, we only have 2 subs, one down for maintainance and one goes on patrol. Don't have spare for other task.

When are we going to buy this?

S-400 is actually an upgraded s-300 with the addition of a 40N6 missile with it's 400km range. And regarding our Neighbours, Vietnam already got it.


ps: I suggest that this thread not be use for MH370 related topic. We have specific thread for those.

This post has been edited by MrUbikeledek: Mar 14 2014, 10:30 AM

No. No country on earth practice round the clock CAP during peace time. Once, during Cold War, US have round the clock CAP over all of major american cities. But this cause an increase in the number of accidents which mean's the lost of valuable aircrafts and pilots. After that, the CAP was cut back.

SAR = Search and Resque. Mencari dan Menyelamat

Will the commanding officer be replace?

Just read some funny article. When US test flight their first jet fighter, they want to keep it secret even from most of the military. But the test was done near an active airbase. How did they keep this plane secret?

At that time, it was a long held view that aircraft can't fly without propeller. So the test pilot that flown the prototype wore a clown suit when they test flown the jet. When the jet cross path with a military pilots on training mission, the military pilots reported that they saw a aircraft with no propeller flown by a clown. So this pilot end up straight to the psych evaluation. Soon, no pilot dare to report the strange plane that they saw.

A small propeller aircraft maybe more suited to be deployed for COIN mission in Sabah. Even if we get ourselves a AH, we may get at most 18 platform, which is far to few to cover the entire east coast of Sabah. This air tractor turn gunship is actually pretty good idea. It's cheap to buy, cheap to operate and will not be a fuel guzzler like AH or a fighter jet. Since the engine is small, it'll produce less heat and be very difficult to target with IR guided missile.

So many beautiful woman in DSA this year.

You sure starburst got heat seeking?

It's much more compact as well. A diesel engine of the same power output would've been larger. It's also much more fuel efficient as well. The high fuel consumption is not from lack of efficiency, but from a high idle RPM. Most piston engine vehicle like car and truck idle at 10% of maximum RPM. Gas turbine idle at 50% of maximum RPM. So Gas turbine is more suited in a vehicle that's constantly on the move, like aircraft and ship. Gas turbine also has longer startup time, and most of the time require outside assistance.