Malaysia had never had tanks before, the so called "tanks" with tracks were scorpions, which were actually recconaisance vehicles. They too if ever used in combat would have been burning hulks of metal as they were over modified.Their target acquisition capabilities were poor. Their turret system, was not compatible with the hull.
The evaluation teams comprising of dedicated officers and men are picked. These men spend months evaluating the equipment to be procured. Then they do the presentation on the tested piece of equipment to the generals. If they are not good, they are explained as such and if they are good they reccommend that they be acquired. Unfortunately along the way of the purchase a completely different equipment is acquired, which might be of a sub-standard quality.
Case in point our M16A1 and the M4A1, which saw many years of service was to be phased out, in the early nineties. The most natural transition would have been to acquire the M16A2 and the M4A2, it was not to be. A proven infantry assault was spurned. Instead they acquired the Austrian Steyr , under the pretext of the transfer of technology. When the Steyr was first acquired, the people involved were vague about the rounds to be used. They continued using the low grain bullets of the M16A1, which used to damage the edges of the ejection port. Stoppages were common place. The sights of the Steyr too were modified, I guess by some "Einstein", instead of a cross hair sight they had a cross, with a circle in the centre of the scope. It created great problems, as there was no point of aim. One had to place the circle over the target, which filled up the hole, there was no point of aim.
We went on an exercise in Australia in 1993 when the Steyrs were first issued to us. There we saw the Aussies too, use the Steyr, the difference was they had cross haired sights and they had rounds known as the SS107, which were specially made for Steyr rifles. We started using the SS107 rounds which had more grain and a higher velocity. There were no more stoppages from then on. The problem was the sights, which would not go away.
After Australia we were supposed to go to Somalia with the Steyr rifles, fortunately, we managed to explain to our higher ups that we did not have the ammunition to go with the Steyr into a combat zone. Thank god, we were allowed to go with our trusty M16's. I am not saying that the Steyr is shitty, except that the procurement guys always love to modify, in this instance the sights. - edit
It isn’t just the airplanes or the tanks or the ships themselves. A multi-engine plane, for instance, means that separate raiders can win contracts for different engines, different avionics, literally dozens of different items. In the 1980s in particular, Malaysia became famous for two complete boondoggles, the first the purchase of British Alvis Scorpion tanks. Although the tank was supposed to be a lightly armed, fast-firing, lightly armored weapon, gun runners dealing with Malaysian military figures in managed to lumber the Scorpions by exchanging the recommended Rolls-Royce gasoline engines with slower diesel ones because the engine manufacturer managed got to the procurement team. Another gun runner contracted to exchange the original recommended .75 millimeter gun for a .90 millimeter one so big that it had to be leveled each time a new shell was jacked into the chamber, meaning it was slow-firing. The gun was so heavy that the turret’s aluminum races had to be replaced with steel ones, making the vehicle so top-heavy that troops using it were afraid it would topple over. So instead of a fast-firing, lightly-armed and maneuverable weapon, the Malaysian army ended up with a tank that would only go about 60 km/hour instead of 90 and had to be stopped virtually every time it fired, which would have made it a sitting duck for an enemy, had there been one in the first place. Likewise, Malaysian specifications required a wheeled armored car that could be loaded into an airplane and flown to East Malaysia in case of trouble with Indonesia or Singapore. But the contract for South African Sibmas wheeled 6x67 armored personnel carriers, armed with 90mm Cockerill guns, came up with a vehicle so big that the tires had to be deflated before it could be loaded into an airplane. When local newspapers reported on the vehicles’ lack of military effectiveness, they were threatened with prosecution under Malaysia’s Official Secrets Act and the scandal was shelved.But, said a foreign defense attaché privately at the time, “I hope to god Malaysia never gets into a war. They couldn’t get out of their own footprints.” Read the whole article in Malaysia Today |
