BANGKOK: The Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) will set up a technical team to evaluate several types of maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) following government approval of the purchase of the surveillance aircraft as announced in the 2018 Budget recently. According to RMAF Chief, Gen Tan Sri Affendi Buang, the technical team will analyse several aspects of the contender’s aircraft and choose the best option which fits the RMAF requirements. Currently, safeguarding the nation’s maritime sovereignty is primarily shouldered by three of the RMAF’s Beechcraft B200 aircraft, and aircraft from other agencies. Besides ASW and maritime surveillance, the MPAs, according to Affendi also needs to perform missions such as Search And Rescue (SAR) and Electronic Intelligence (ELINT). On offer by the Japanese Government to transfer its Kawasaki P-1 maritime surveillance aircraft to Malaysia for free, Affendi said the RMAF technical team had just left for the country to evaluate the offer.

Source: New Strait Times November 07, 2017 08:15 UTC