Armed Forces to replace LRs with Weststar models, says minister

March 05, 2012

The Armed Forces currently deploys the Land Rover Defender as its military 4WD vehicle. — Picture by Rudolf Stricker

KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 — The Armed Forces will replace its trusty but rusty fleet of Land Rover Defender four-wheel drives (4WD) with models made by the Weststar Group in Thailand, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was reported saying by Bernama Online today.

“The existing 4x4s used by the three services are obsolete and no longer cost-effective to maintain,” the defence minister was quoted by the state news agency.

Weststar Group is based in Kuala Lumpur and headed by Tan Sri Syed Azman Syed Ibrahim. Among others, its enterprises include automotive sales and imports, defence, engineering, aviation services, and construction.

The 4WDs offered by the group are assembled in Pattaya, in south Thailand.

Ahmad Zahid declined to reveal either the number of vehicles to be purchased or the price Weststar would be charging for the as-yet unspecified vehicles.

But the minister did add that Weststar has previously provided the vehicles for military use in, among others, the United States, Singapore and Thailand.

Weststar has also supplied the government previously via subsidiary Weststar LDV, a joint venture with the now-insolvent UK firm LDV, which provided customised panel vans and transporters specifically for government agencies and services.