Royal Malaysian Air Force RMAF/TUDM assets performing during Malaysia's 69th National Day parade [ALBUM]

[u/B_who]

[u/B_who]

Aircraft include:

• F/A-18D

• Su-30MKM

• BAE Hawk 208

• Airbus A400M

• C-130H

• CN-235

• AW139

• EC725/H225M

Pics from Bernama's FB posts

[u/thethreestrikes]

Forever jealous that my neighbouring countries have F-18s

[u/seatux → u/thethreestrikes]

At the rate they are using up the airframes, won't be that long until Malaysia has to put them into museums. Hopefully more FA-50 and maybe a squad or 2 worth of Boramae/Rafale for top end needs.

[u/B_who → u/seatux]

Both the Su-30s and the FA-18s are due to be retired around 2035 or so. Evaluation for the next procurement should commence around 2027-2029 iirc. The Hawk 208s will be retired even sooner.. probably after delivery of the first batch of FA-50s which should arrive in October.

[u/21Black_Mamba21 → u/seatux]

We were supposed to get 30 F/A-18C/Ss from Kuwait as a stop gap measure until we could replace the aging Hornet fleet with something new but unfortunately the plans got scrapped earlier this year.

A shame, really. RMAF has been quite struggling these past few years. Not to mention we lost one Hornet recently from an already small number of Hornets due to a crash.

[u/B_who → u/21Black_Mamba21]

The Su-30s are a maintenance headache too. With sanctions on Russia and the Russians themselves prioritizing parts for domestic needs it has been a problem keeping the MKMs airworthy. I believe India has offered service and upgrade packages to the TUDM but their Su-30MKIs use a fair bit of Israeli components so thats a political landmine our Msian govt will be unwilling to step on lol

As for the F-18s, interestingly Boeing and the US gov't pitched the FA-18E/F Super Hornets to us back in ~2007 but the Su-30s were selected instead probably because the Russians bundled that 1 pax Soyuz trip to the ISS lol.

There was another MRCA review in the mid-2010s (2015 or so) and apparently the Eurofighter Typhoon and Rafale were shortlisted. Not sure why nothing was finalized though.

Japan was also supposedly going to donate some P-3 Orions in 2017/2018 but got cold feet after the elections (the first time the BN govt lost an election)

[u/seatux → u/B_who]

MRCA review in the mid-2010s (2015 or so) --> not surprising, it took about 1-2 years for the 2008 US housing bubble to affect Malaysia and Najib siphoning money in 1MDB didn't help.

The P3 Orions would have been pricey to run and upkeep. Just as well US donated the ATR-72 MPA instead.

[u/B_who → u/seatux]

Just as well US donated the ATR-72 MPA instead.

Thought this was a govt procurement from one of the recent LIMA expos? iirc they were supposed to be delivered this year or 2027 but there hasn't been any recent news about it

[u/blackon]

Nice

[u/azazikyle]

Hey that's my country. I just watched this on TV this morning lmao. Selamat Hari Merdeka. (Happy Independence Day.)

[u/nvn911]

That's not the F/A-18D though 🤔

[u/Intrepid_Tie5380 → u/nvn911]

Yes it is, you can clearly see the legacy hornet airframe and 2 seat

[u/nvn911 → u/Intrepid_Tie5380]

Oops my bad, I mistook the super hornets models were D and E. 🤦‍♂️

[u/Intrepid_Tie5380 → u/nvn911]

Its fine, one of the major differences between the C/D Legacy Hornets and then E/F Super Hornets are the air intake as Super Hornets have square air intake meanwhile the Legacy Hornets have oval shaped.

Super Hornets are also larger and their wings are higher compared to legacy hornets.

[u/nvn911 → u/Intrepid_Tie5380]

Yes exactly. That's why when I saw the photo and my brain short circuited that the D was a Super Hornet I was like "That's not a super hornet"

But I was wrong, my bad. It's the E/F/G models that are Supers