The update on the Royal Malaysian Navy Multi-Role Support Ship project did not take place today at the Defence Services Asia arms show. The RMN had earlier indicated the MRSS design would be unveiled at the show and all eyes were on the MOU update staged this morning.
What's more, a Memorandum of Agreement between European weapons manufacturer, Nexter Systems, and its Malaysian partner, ADS Sdn Bhd, related to the supply of Nexter 105LG1 light guns for the Malaysian Army was cancelled at the last minute. It's not fake news. See above.
Had the event taken place, the Malaysian Army would have been due to receive its first of 18 light guns in November 2019, with the balance delivered by February 2020.
No reasons were given for both developments.
I did not attend the MOU signing as I was engaged with 3 Divisyen staff. Staff from 3 Div had hosted Singapore Chief of Army, Brigadier-General Goh Si Hou, at the Malaysian Army pavilion on Tuesday. Split between hearing their perspective of COA's visit or attending a photocall covered by all media, I decided on the former.
Malaysian defence observer, Marhalim Abas, summed today's developments up nicely in his DSA update on his Malaysian Defence blog. See his post, Cold Feet, here.
A related post by Malaysian Defence noted:"Several contracts scheduled for today were left out without any explanation. This includes the contract for the purchase of Nexter 105 LG1 howitzers. ADS Sdn Bhd officials who were at the ceremony were left speechless with the turn of events. Also left out at the ceremony were contracts for Air Asia and Malaysia Airlines to provide transportation for soldiers to and from the peninsula to Sabah and Sarawak. Their representatives who were present at the ceremony were also not given any explaination on why the contracts were not awarded today."
Click here for the full Malaysian Defence post.
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