Invisible Ships. Drone Pun Invisible?

 

The Malaysian government seeks to turn the country into Southeast Asia's testing ground for drones (OSTB : Haaa Haa Ha), in which international companies will design and produce unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for carrying out deliveries and to provide other unique services.  With these unmanned ambitions in mind, it is perhaps all the more surprising that the Malaysian government has invested little in the acquisition of UAVs for its armed forces, this despite the presence of an indigenous drone industry that has come up with several military-grade drone designs since the early 2000s.

Only one of these types was to eventually enter service with the Malaysian Armed Forces in 2008, the A..ra.  Despite the reported sale of three UAVs to Thailand in 2009, Malaysian UAVs are not known to have found any commercial success abroad. 

After the retirement of the Al..ra  around the turn of the last decade, Malaysia currently operates a number of Boeing Insitu ScanEagle 2s donated by the United States, the Spanish Fulmar X and several commercially-obtainable Chinese VTOL drones, a meagre inventory even for Southeast Asian standards.

Only the ScanEagle 2s are actually operated by the Malaysian Armed Forces, with the Fulmar X having entered service with the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (Coast Guard) while the Chinese VTOL drone types see use with the Police Air Wing. This hodgepodge of UAVs is a far cry from the inventory once envisioned during Malaysia's unmanned ambitions in the 2000s, when the country was presented with the unique opportunity to become a South Asian giant in the design and production of UAVs.
 
In 2001, C..M unveiled an optionally-piloted UAV designated as the E...e ARV, which was based on the Australian E..e light aircraft. This project was launched in collaboration with the British BAE Systems. Although it is sometimes reported that one system, consisting of three drones and a ground station, was purchased by Malaysia for aerial surveillance and environmental control, the E...e ARV eventually failed to attract any customers. This lack of interest from the Malaysian Armed Forces would hamper nearly all UAV designs coming out of Malaysia since.

In the years that followed, several more Malaysian UAV designs would see the light of day. However, faced with a government and military that placed little value in the operations of UAVs at the time, these too failed to attract any domestic orders. In fact, in 2009, the Malaysian S...a UAV company preferred to assemble its UAVs in Australia rather than in Malaysia, with setting up a production line in Malaysia only feasible if the Malaysian government would actually start placing orders for the unmanned systems, which never materialised. 

(OSTB : My question is how much money was paid to buy those drones yang tak jadi? If money was paid where are the drones?)
 
The Al...a  by C..M would thus end up as the only indigenous drone type acquired by the Malaysian Armed Forces, although it remains uncertain whether the limited numbers that entered service were actually purchased or leased from the manufacturer. The Al...a, along with leased ScanEagle UAVs, first saw operational use in 2013 during counterterrorism operations in Sabah State, Borneo. 

A Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) was also developed for the Al... although this does not appear to have have found its way to operational use in Malaysia.
 
After the retirement of the Al... around the turn of the last decade, the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) issued a tender for the provision of a new Tactical Unmanned Aerial System (TUAS) in May 2020. Malaysian companies are currently offering two drone types for this requirement, these being the Al...  by C..M (now D... A...n) and the D...h W...a developed in collaboration with Leonardo of Italy. The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) meanwhile received a donation of twelve ScanEagle 2 UAVs from the United States in May 2020.
 
A decade before, in 2009, it was announced that Malaysia would become the first country in the region to produce its own medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) UAVs in collaboration with Adcom Systems of the United Arab Emirates. The MALE UAV that was to be produced was the Yabhon-R, now designated as the Yabhon-Al...a. Offering an endurance of some 30 hours, the Yabhon-Al...a positioned itself as an ideal candidate for the RMAF's upcoming MALE UAV requirement. A lack of concrete interest from the Malaysian Armed Forces prevented this promising collaboration of coming to fruition however.

(OSTB: i have only one question - was any money paid? If yes, then how much?)

As of 2021, the Malaysia's MALE UAV requirement remains unfulfilled.  D...h is currently collaborating with Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) to offer the Anka-S UAV for the RMAF's MALE UAV programme. [Other UAVs reportedly under consideration are the U.S. MQ-9 Reaper, the Russian Orion-E, the Chinese Wing Loong II and CH-4B, the French Patroller-S, the British Watchkeeper WK450, and the Italian Falco.  The Anka-S has long been considered the favourite type to fullfill the RMAF's requirement, although the recent rise of the Bayraktar TB2 might have also secured its late entry into the competition. Any of the Turkish types would provide Malaysia with an armed UAV capability, although this interestingly does not appear to be a stated requirement for Malaysia's MALE UAVs.


With the upcoming acquisition of a MALE UAV system by Malaysia finally addressing the Malaysian Armed Forces's long-standing requirement for such a capability, the country is slowly on its way towards attaining the capabilities most neighbouring countries already possess for decades. (OSTB: i have only one question - was any money paid? If yes, then how much?) 

In the future, Malaysia could also attempt to address the lack of tactical UAVs (like the RQ-11 Raven) in the inventory of its armed forces. Whether it will source these systems from its own industry or from abroad is unknown, but is Malaysia to finally capitalise on its indigenous technology base, perhaps in collaboration with foreign UAV manufacturers, great feats will certainly await.

 The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.