My condolences to all families of QZ8501.
The plane suspected to crash due to heavy storm.
Police ate using dark camouflage compare army using green camo.. For combat purposes the army is is equipped with kevlar that can be hit with 7.62 mm.
They also can from 90s 5.56mm bullets but sometimes can go up to 300s bulleys if is needed.
Army are now using m4a1 with the shorter but heavy barrel, claimed to be better than previous m4 which always jam. But police still using M16A1, but you will be amazed although the police operate long barrel m16, they are fast and sharp shooter when operate in a team.
Ec725 is a long range tactical helicopter. It twin engine can travel up to 857km with its cruising speed 285km per hour. The capacity can support up to 29 troops or 5670kgs in this case carry food and medical supplies for east flood areas. The best part it can be handle in current bad weather thanks for Flir or Foward looking infra red system to deploy all search and rescue mission.. now are supporting east coast sate flood nature disaster which now getting worst.
NiThe primary role of attack helicopter or also known as gunship is to engage ground target from infantry to armor vehicle such APC, MBT etc.
Our neighbour such as Singapore and Indonesia is now operating Apache gunship. Singapore has 20 Apaches with some equip with Longbow radar or AN/APG -78 millimeter wave fire control radar. This allow the Apache to track 128 targets and engage 16 at once within 30 seconds.... crazy, which a nightmare to a mechanise armor konvoi.
As for Indonesia army, they will be equip ed with the 8 latest Apache AH 64E, which has a lot of improvements such as more digital equipment, powerfull engine, can be fit to maritime operation etc. But for Indonesia, not sure about they will have longbow radar or not as the price they bought only not a full package price.
So how about us? What do we in mind? I think the best gunship to go against Apache is Eurocopter Tiger. The best part about Tiger is it been design for stealth and agility. The steath is referring to low to visual, radar, infra red and acoustic signature. Tiger use Doppler radar and got FLIR forward looking infrared for night flying. Some operator like German army equip their Tiger with mast mounted sensor Osiris-optical TV-up to 18km, thermal camera, laser finder and multiple gro scopes for sensor stabilizer. By having this the Tiger can be use for recon and even can fire long range anti- tank missile such as TRIGAT LR(up to 7km)- the idea is beyond fire of enemy vehicle. But if Tiger is consider expensive we always have an option.
Other thanSouth Africa Denel Rooivolk we can go for T|29 an upgrade of Agusta A-129 Mangusta. The upgrade is by Turkish Aerospace(TAI). The focus should on their weopon power and radar. Maybe not good as Apache long bow but it still under development. T129 is lighter attack gunship, so additional arm power will compromise it flying capabilities. That's why T129 is using 20mm instead of 30mm like Apache. Well maybe later we will see how Turks develop it and become better that Cobra.
Check the details out at Jane
http://www.janes.com/article/45013/brazil-signs-for-36-gripen-e-f-fighters?utm_campaign=%5bPMP%5d_pc6110_E14%20DF%20NL%20AIRFORCES%2010_28_2014_DW_Deployment&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua
Congrats to the army for the new digital camo. As the dotrine jungle warfare have move to urban warfare, this is the best time to have digital camo.
The small light green is purposely to fit in Malaysia open greens and as the soldier move to urban area the dark brown pixel will take over to match building colours.
I guess we few more step behind on network centric warfare. The idea of having such tech is to centralize all communication, the team leader will capable to update their condition during engagement, point out enemy position to others squad, requesting air support in just a click of button, encrypted communication etc.
The most challenging part is to develop the tech without falling behind our neighbouring countries. We are quite slow even monitoring drones still need to depend on oversea suppliers.
As for M4 A1 rifles it is using heavy barrel to avoid jamming problem as previous M4 version. That's good.. but still lack of telescope for more accurate firing. Although having basic M4A1 for normal battalion conscript with the tactic 10 soldier to 1 enemy. . But still telescope will play a big contribution especially in urban build up area.
To boost soldier firing power, new AFV Deftech AV8 will 25mm Sharpshooter Turret. AV8 will be use by mechanise battalion as response deterrence to stop enemy movement. The current Adnan AFV is lower speed more suitable for country cross compare to AV8 which is 8×8 wheel and more suitable on road or highway.
The cost for this project is 9 billion which consists of 6 Corvette class ships. To make it sounds futuristic they called it LCS or littoral combat ship plus with a stealth design which capble of 3 dimes ional warfare air sea & underwater. The ship speed is 28 knots which can travel at 5000 nautical miles. While the length is 111m & beam 16m.
The design is using Gowind combat ship. The load, displacement suppose to be 2730 tonnes but reportly to become 3000 tonnes, as it jump to light frigate displacement,some called it heavy corvette,and the Navy called it LCS. Whatever it is, the armament more towards corvette class. This time,the ASM will be Exocet MM40 block 3 which has the range of 180km & capable of attacking land target due to its GPS guidance way point command. As usual this subsonic missile maintain a sea skimming 1-2 meter above sea surface. The advantage is when its fire over 100kM, the missile cannot be detected due to radar horizon, until 6000 meters from the enemy ship.... and boom!Well its is ideal case of theory. As for Sam, the LCS will use Mica with the range of 10km & capable to hit UAV not more than 20km. Why Mica not Aster which can go to 30km and more? Because LCS still has a corvette saiz and of course price is cheaper.For the mica head seeker should be active radar seeker Rf, not the IR imaging infra red seeker.
For radar,the LCS will be equip with Smart- S 3D.The radar can track both air & surface up to 500 targets . Smart-s has 2 operating mode, medium can tracked up to 150km & long range up to 250km. While the range accuracy is 20 meter.
Why the navy didn proceed with the Meko 100 design since they want a covette class, well I have no answer for that. But for sure the almost familiar design to Meko 100 K130, has technical problems such as toxic exposition by the exhoust system. The current Meko 100NGPV Kedah class is using water surface exhaust release and have some thermal and can be detected by infra red seeker. So this time, for LCS design Navy chose a stealth tower exhaust release.
Hopefully, the project NGPV2 -LCS this time will be a good choice, later the same design can be upgrade to real frigate capable & better airmaments.
As I remembered, it took Israel 6 days to defeat the Egypt army, now as the war between Hamas Palestine n zionis so called Israel has passed 3 weeks already.
The zionis has used all its assest but fail to win this battle.
For Palestine their not winning this war alone.. somehow they manage to build their own rocket, UAV, antitank n modified warhead into mines.
As Arab leaders do not help, the Palestine people become self independent in build their own weapons.
As the war tactics using guerilla warfare, Hamas the half political half military organisation manage to penetrate Israel borders n bring the war to their enemy cities. More secret underground tunnels were found lead in Israel which becoming threat of ambushing Zionis troops.
Can Hamas win this war? With Israel loosing the morality among its troops. . Yes. Although US is sending more missle, there is no point if the Israel military itself cowardly run away ever time dumb rocket fall in their compound. Iron Dome is not an effective defence. .
Hamas with its brave brigades troop keep on attacking as their meant to die together with collateral damage to the enemies. Even morality nightmare n trauma to haunted the Zionis troops n people.
Now half of world are supporting to boycott Israel, and we should do the same to show our sense of humanity. It is genocide in Palestine. Therefore please do your part.
We cannot afford to buy second batch of MRCA. So we moving foward to lease at least two squadron of these MRCA figthers . Currently some of best option are Super Hornet, Gripen & Euro fighter Typhoon, these stock are available in service. So now , what is the best fighter & affort to lease?
Gripen, one single engine with the latest network centric warfare, is a great combination with Awacs AEW. But again you are talking about the risk of single engine, cheap in term of maintainance. But have a great features such as AESA, infomation sharing, can AMRAAm etc.
While for Super Hornet, we are looking at more bigger f-18 in term of size, Weapon capacity, longer range. It is perfect for maritin strike & patrolling the sea as it is equip with APG-79 version of AESA radar. For dogfight, this fighter is good for low speed & very maneuverable.... but when going against real enemy jet fighter or missile, it is not the jet you want to be in. That is why F-18 is design to kill its enemy at medium using AMRAAM. As solution for dogfight, this jet is using AIM -X version of missile to chase its high manouver enemy. Such version missile is only available for US or its allies. For Malaysia you can only buy it is limited quantity with limitation. F -18 also do not have IRST a passive optical heat tracking... so back to depend on AIM-x.
Typhoon one of current favorite Second batch MRCA, got a lot of stock but in tranche 1 &2. Both versions have limited air to ground capability. But future upgrade will see AESA & air bombing capability....
(To be continue)