That one until I grow old and have grandchildren also no hope la.

I think the NGPV will refer to frigate-class ships


Wanna improve how la pulak? Just install those 'fitted for but not with' RAM and Exocet missiles la. Too long time waiting if you ask me. You'll practically get instant 6 brand-new missile corvettes instead of stuck with 6 OPVs that can't do much.

Their radar and electronics are very modern and capable AFAIK but they lack the punch to do real Navy work.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Mar 9 2016, 09:53 PM

National Security Council deploys 5 Platoons of Askar Wataniah to help clear illegal exploration in Cameron Highlands



Yesterday, the National Security Council (NSC) has directed five Territorial Army platoons to assist Cameron Highlands District and Land Offices to help clear illegal exploration in the highlands.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim said the directive was issued to military personnel involved to conduct operations against illegal exploration in situ involving three shifts.

Shahidan also asks the Cameron Highlands District Officer, Datuk A. Rahman Hamzah to launch a campaign to plant a million trees in the highlands immediately.

Basic Amenities Committee chairman and Environment Minister, Datuk Seri Ir. Mohd. Soffi Abdul Razak said the state government welcomed any action and the government's efforts to restore the resort concerned. "Continuous efforts to conserve and preserve not only the areas in Cameron Highlands but across the country are actions that should be supported by all parties," he said.

Just some basic labor job, no need to call regular army, reservists are enough. Don't even need weapons deployed I bet.

I was surprised the RELA corps wasn't given the job in the first place. At least a welcome break from terrorizing illegal immigrants.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Mar 10 2016, 11:11 AM

Donno about your area, but my area got a good percentage of young people (20-30 years old) in RELA. I know at least 10 RELA members around my age (I'm 29) in my housing area alone. I guess it helps that the RELA leftenant in my district very active in recruiting for new members.

Most members are part-time volunteers. Very hard to find full-time professional RELA members as they pay around RM6 per hour as allowance. I think most cases of corruption and thuggery happen in non-urban areas that have many illegals. In most cases they are decent people.

In my area they mostly do night patrols of the neighborhood. Most residents very supportive of them and leave out snacks and coffee for them. Sometimes they also help manage traffic if there are events like weddings and such.

Russia to test-fire SLBMs from its most advanced Ballistic Missile Submarines


Borei-class SSBN Yuri Dolgoruky

The Russian Navy is set to conduct a massive live-fire nuclear exercise on a scale not seen since before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Two new 24,000-ton Project 955 Borei-class ballistic missile submarines are participating in the exercise. Of the two Northern Fleet boats participating—Yury Dolgoruky and Vladimir Monomakh—one will sequentially launch its entire payload of sixteen RSM-56 Bulava missiles in a drill that replicates the Soviet-era Begemot II exercise which took place in August 1991—reports the Russian media outlet Izvestia. It’s not clear which of the two boomers will conduct the test.

The Russians want to confirm that the new submarines will be able to launch all sixteen ballistic missiles in sequence from a depth of 164ft while the boat is operating at sea states of between six and seven. At those sea states, waves can be anywhere from 13ft to 30ft in height.

The last time Russia successfully launched all sixteen missiles from a ballistic missile submarine in sequence was during the August 1991 Begemot II exercise.

Just so you know, this is the type of airplane the Philippines are leasing.



The Philippines are literally flying a basic twin-engine trainer airplane with no equipment whatsoever and passing it off as an maritime patrol aircraft with the hopes that the Chinese Navy won't notice.

They originally wanted the planes for free, even though the plane costs only around $3 million USD brand new. Note that these are older JSDF airframes, purchased back in the 1980s and should be worth less than $1 million USD today.

Japan said bullshit and said friendly country or not there's no way they'll give them away for free.

Visual all the way.

Malaysians have similar small twin-engine planes as maritime patrol (4 Beechcraft B200T MPA), but at least Malaysian ones have surface search radar and FLIR.


TUDM B200T MPA (note bulge for search radar on the underside of the fuselage)

I wished we had more of these though, 4 seems to be an awfully small number of MPA for a country that has as much coast line as Malaysia.

The problem with testing anti-ship missiles is that the target is always a empty stripped hull without the damage-control equipment and personnel of a running ship. With the target unable to mount any sort of defense (figuratively a sitting duck), the test will be more about testing the accuracy and evaluating the performance of the missile rather than its destructive effects. You're better off floating an 'x' in the middle of the ocean and shooting at that.

This will always skew the advantage of the test in favor of the missile, seeing its target is just a floating piece of hull with no means to avoid, fight back or even contain the damage. It's the equivalent of testing a tank's battle performance by shooting at a static farmhouse instead of another active, fighting tank. In the end you just get a blown up farmhouse and nothing more. You can never get the sort of data you need testing against something like that.

As far I don't think no country dare to test anti ship missiles on a fully functional ship and see how extensive the damage will be with damage-control protocols in place and working. So I take all of these tests with the usual grain of salt.

I find the HMS Sheffield case very bizarre. A warship in an active warzone should not have been that caught unaware by a strike like that. In fact they should have anticipated any attack and all measures should have been in place 24/7 from day 1 of hostilities, especially after the Argentine Navy cruiser General Belgrano was sunk by a RN sub just 2 days earlier.

Also HMS Sheffield wasn't even alone at the time. She was part of an forward patrol squadron with 2 other Type 42 Destroyers , her sister ships HMS Edinburgh and HMS Coventry which were, ironically, ordered to act as an air defense screen to protect the carrier HMS Invincible from any air attacks. None of them could detect the Argentine missiles or the aircraft launching them?

How all 3 (at the time) modern warships can be caught totally by a surprise anti ship strike is puzzling. An air defense Destroyer which has the Sea Dart SAM as its main weapon, no less!

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Mar 11 2016, 01:11 PM

Both HMS Coventry and HMS Broadsword was under the disadvantage of being inside San Carlos Water, a very narrow bay in which the surrounding landmass was playing havoc with their Naval search radars. In the battle itself the HMS Coventry and HMS Broadsword had lost their radar missile locks on the Argentine Skyhawks multiple times. The attacking planes came in very low, mostly from the landward side where ground clutter helped hide them from radar.


Dramatic picture of attacking Argentine A4 Skyhawks skimming the waves during the attack on San Carlos Water, picture taken from HMS Broadsword

HMS Broadsword also had a major FCS system malfunction that day. Remember by then they were already under heavy daily air attack for the preceding 4 days, during the Royal Marines' landings in San Carlos before the HMS Coventry was sunk on 25.5.1982. During that period the Royal Navy also lost the Frigates HMS Ardent, HMS Antelope and the container shipMV Atlantic Conveyor from Argentine air attacks during that time period, so you can probably imagine the intensity of the air attacks.

Also, at the moment of the hit, it was reported that the HMS Coventry was maneuvering erratically to avoid the Skyhawks that it inadvertently crossed into the HMS Broadsword's line of fire, forcing to abort the launch its short-range Sea Wolf SAMs at the Skyhawks. That's when the Argentines hit.

From what I learn the Argentine fighters also had it lucky. One of the two bombs bomb they hit the HMS Coventry just caused some minor internal damage, but one lucky bomb struck and exploded in exactly the largest non-partitioned bulkhead in the entire ship, just between its two engines. This immediately had a very disastrous effect of flooding and disabling both engines while water filled into the engine space. After that the ship went down fairly quickly, in less than 20 minutes. Marine experts say if the bomb hit anywhere else, the ship would have survived.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Mar 11 2016, 04:33 PM

The battle was ridiculous, the bay was really, really narrow, like 2-3 km wide only at the most. And all those RN ships were all bunched up, unable to maneuver. It was probably like shooting fish in a barrel for the Argentine planes. The Brits called the bay 'Bomb Alley'.



The very low altitude attack had one flaw though, the Argentine bombs were dropped so low that 13 bombs that hit british ships didn't have time to arm their fuses properly before impacting their targets unexploded, leaving only impact damage. Lord Craig, the retired Marshal of the Royal Air Force, is said to have remarked: "Six better fuses and we would have lost the war"

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Mar 11 2016, 04:54 PM

No biggie, Malaysian media also always call Adnan IFV as tank. So ignorant reporters are a universal issue.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Mar 12 2016, 09:06 AM

If I'm not mistaken one sub, the SSBN is called 'Akula' (Shark) by the Russians themselves, this sub is more known to the world as the 'Typhoon', its NATO designation.

The other one, the SSN is called an 'Akula' by NATO. The Russians actually call the class the 'Shchuka' (Pike).

So it's actually we are the mistaken & confused ones.

This post has been edited by MilitaryMadness: Mar 12 2016, 07:08 PM

Guys, don't forget to watch the 2nd instalment of the #OpMaritim docu series titled "Wira Halimunan" (Invisible Warrior), today on TV3 at 1830hrs.

Today's focus is on the TLDM submarine KD Tun Abdul Razak. Can't wait!

Type 056 Coast Guard version armed with a 20mm RWS station. Also note the two fast speedboats located at the waist position, presumably for boarding parties and the aft observation bridge.

p.s. The black colored board near the radar mast is a LED message board to flash messages to other ships.

Whatever they said their aims were, it was quite clear Russia's main concern is to secure their bases at Latakia and Hmeimem. Late 2015 saw the rebels get dangerously close to area. Now that the SAA have significantly pushed the rebels back and Russian assets are in no immediate danger they can scale down and eventually stop the air campaign.

The security troops and military advisors would probably stay though.

Malaysia sends new contingent of military observers to Mindanao



Malaysia continues its commitment to support the government peace process in Mindanao as it deploys another contingent of Malaysian peace monitors to replace another contingent which completed its one year tour of duty on Sunday.

The new contingent replaces the outgoing team after observing for the past 12 months the enforcement of ceasefire agreement between Philippine government forces and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Malaysian Major Gen. Datuk Wira Zamrose Bin Mohd Zain of the Malaysian Royal Armed Forces will lead the new peace monitors called 11TH International Monitoring Team (IMT-11), replacing a team (IMT-10) led by Major Gen. Dato Sheik Mokhsin Bin Sheik Hassan.

The team is composed of representatives from Brunei and Indonesia, and civilian experts from Norway, Japan, and the European Union. It has been helping the GPH and the MILF enforce the ceasefire accord since 2003.

Governor Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) welcomed the new Malaysian peace monitors, noting the “big role” its contributions make to the over-all peace situation in the region.

“This peacekeeping mission plays a very big role in keeping peace in many areas inside the autonomous region," Hataman said.

I think you'll have to choose whether you use shorter-ranged portable light infantry-based ATGM like Metis-M or heavier, longer-ranged ATGM like TOW that are larger and much more difficult to carry around.

If your tactics depend of fast hit and run infantry tactics, a lighter weapon would probably be more appreciated. Heavy ATGMs are really suited best for vehicle mountings or fixed ambushes, not fast infantry action. You could always mount them on a truck or Humvee, but vehicles are easier to detect and destroy than small units of 3-4 soldiers.