SHAH ALAM: Some eight years ago, the requirement for a 6X6 vehicle to replace the Condor APC in service with the Malaysian United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) contingent was floated. Until now the requirement remains pending.

Armed Forces Chief Tan Sri Zulkifeli Mohd Zin today stated that funds for the programme has yet to be confirmed although the requirement for Condor replacement remained. He said the programme might be funded in the 11th Malaysian Plan – to be announced in June, 2015 or it could be allocated from a special grant.

Asked for an update on the AV8, Zulkifeli said a ceremony for the hand-over to an operational army battalion is scheduled in December

I thought got news also from malaysia defence that UN will provide funding or partial funding for condor replacement?

Or UN sudah tarik balik funding?

Why not get MRAP-type vehicle?

If mrap...can get US ones? Since they have so  many to get rid off. It cheap or even free.

Though the only problem i can think off.. it heavy, potential maintenance headache and makan minyak

Other than those, any issues of us having US used mrap?

I don't understand why all the fuss is about MRAPs being heavy, with high fuel consumption and hard to service & maintain? All military vehicles are guilty of that.

-Armored vehicles are heavy (obviously)
-Heavy vehicles need powerful engines that gulps down fuel
-Most military vehicles have parts especially made for that vehicle or a few like it (due to task specialization, for example a tank will need different parts from a transport truck), so of course la hard to get parts

Tell me what military vehicle don't have the above problems?

US problems with MRAPs stem due to the fact they bought off-the-shelf many MRAP types from many manufacturers (in order to bulk up the numbers) , so naturally US military  will need different parts for each MRAP from each different manufacturers and each type will need its own specialized maintenance routine. That is the actual problem with the US MRAP program, too many types from too many manufacturers. It is a myth to say the fact that MRAPs themselves are problematic.

If US military got MRAPs from normal military channels, the problems won't be so apparent.

Thought, i always  wonder we have the  option to get the mordern t90 instead we opt for those poland soviet design tanks. Not that, i say it bad but why take an old design when we was officially offered one of the latest.

The problem is most 6x6 MRAPs are mammoth beasts the size of buses that aren't exactly very conducive for peacekeeping operations. A huge MRAP might give wrong signals to the parties involved.

That's why for me, the best peacekeeping operations are run by small humvee or land rover-type vehicles. I prefer if we can get some smaller category 1 MRAPs that's a bit larger than land rovers but not as large as most 6x6 MRAPs. Price is cheaper, lighter weight, easier to maintain because they mostly use commercial truck parts & engines, can carry good amount of 5-6 infantrymen if needed and most importantly they have that 'peacekeeper' look to them (military, but not too much military).

Basically we'll be using them as armored land rovers

BANGKOK: A Thai army spokesman says a helicopter carrying a deputy regional army commander and eight other officers has crashed and at least five people were killed.

Spokesman Col. Winthai Suvaree says the cause of today’s crash was not immediately known and the five dead have not been identified. The chopper crashed 10 minutes after taking off from an army unit in Phayao province.

Among the passengers was Maj. Gen. Songphol Thongjeen, the newly promoted deputy regional army commander overseeing affairs in Thailand’s north.

Those aboard were finishing an inspection mission in Phayao and were heading to another northern province.

Phayao is about 590 kilometers (370 miles) north of Bangkok. --AFP

in the end also get the t90... 

t72 one thing good is its reliability, the rest armor protection can be said to be subpar.. blow up alot.. even from syrian video can be seen this apparent problem

hope the next tank we will get have better protection and a little more modern compared to tis soviet era design

IMHO, malaysia should set higher weight limit for their tank requirements, maybe specific a larger track modification which can be done without much issues

era brick and aps is russian solution to weak armor 

i yet to see the new arena on t90 anyone seen a picture of it?

though big n heavy mbt are also going for aps, even K2 will have APS as part of the tank in the future. I always a supporter of K2, just that it not ready. Now that even turkey have it maybe we can ask for one as well 

I waiting how t99 armata going to look like, from the render photo, macam using oscillating turret only like the one in earlier AMX series

Washington (AFP) - It's a Hollywood sci-fi fantasy that has long eluded the Pentagon: a flying "mothership" that launches smaller aircraft.

The Pentagon's research agency put out a request to industry this month to outline how a large cargo plane could release drones to spy on or attack an enemy and then return to the flying aircraft carrier.

The concept conjures up fantastical images from "The Avengers" film and the "StarCraft" video game, with large, lumbering motherships sending out smaller craft -- but there are no cloaking devices involved in this particular project.

At the moment, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is not close to constructing any test planes and is merely exploring the possibility on paper, officials and experts said.

"This is the float-the-idea stage of the concept. It's not the build-me-a-prototype stage. We're not to that yet," said author Peter Singer, who has written extensively about robots and warfare.

In a conceptual drawing from DARPA, a cargo plane resembling a C-130 releases a squadron of drones that look similar to Predator or Reaper aircraft.

"We want to find ways to make smaller aircraft more effective, and one promising idea is enabling existing large aircraft, with minimal modification, to become 'aircraft carriers in the sky,'" Dan Patt, the manager for the DARPA program, said in a statement.