Malaysia’s MRCA

I am quite happy that the Government finally decided to retire the Mig-29s by 2010 and to call for international tenders for new Multi Role Combat Aircrafts (MRCA) intended to be used by the RMAF.

According to the Defence Minister, the contenders for the MRCA would be from the United States, France, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The not so cryptic hint would mean the F-18E/F, Rafale, Gripen and Typhoon. I am salivating at the prospect of Rafale and Typhoon being considered and quite honestly I am quite surprised in their inclusion since sometime back, the Air force Chief suggested that it would either be the Super Hornets and failing which an increase in the number of SU-30MKMs.

It is interesting to see the result of India’s MRCA competition for 126 fighter jets to replace her ageing fleet of MiG21s. Due to the close working relationship between Malaysia and India, the choice by India would provide strong clue as to Malaysia’s pick. It may not necessarily determine Malaysia’s pick but it would strongly affect the decision by the policy makers in Malaysia.

India’s MRCA competition have been going on for the past 5 years or more, beginning with light fighter jets such as the F-16 C/D Block 50+, Mirage 2000-5, Gripen and the Mig-29 OVT and have now evolved to include the heavyweights, Super Hornets, Typhoon, Rafale, Gripen and an improved version of the UAE’s F-16 Block 60.

Due to budgetary constraints, I doubt it if Malaysia will purchase Typhoon or Rafale. In as much as I would love to see either one of the two fighters flying with the RMAF I doubt it that these aircrafts will be serious contenders since these aircrafts are about 30% to 40% more than the price of F-18E/F or the SU-30MKM. Purchasing either one would also prove to be a logistical nightmare, more so in inducting a French fighter jet into a myriad of Russian (SU-30MKM), US (F-18), UK (Hawk) and Italian (MB-339) jets in the RMAF inventory ! Besides, the French hasn’t been able to secure a single export customer for its Rafale and that would cast doubt on the future modernisation programme of Rafale.

Historically, the RMAF seems to favour twin engines for its front line fighters with MiG-29, F-18C and SU-30MKM in its inventory. The Swedish Gripen and US F-16s are single engine fighter jets. But then again, one can never know. Among the other contenders, Sweden appears to be more than willing to conduct extensive Transfer of Technology programme, a significant consideration as far as the Malaysian policy makers are concerned. Some industry analyst believes that its operational range holds Gripen back. The Swede acknowledging Gripen’s limitation has re-designed the Gripen and the NG Version now offers 40% more range than the C/D model due to the expanded internal and external fuel capacity.

I don’t think F-16 will be considered since we already operate an F-18C and naturally an upgrade to an F-18E/F would be more desirable if we opt for a US make jets. Besides, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia all operate F-16s for more than 2 decades and would have an advantage over us in terms of combat tactics and operational knowledge of the F-16s should we now decide to purchase the Vipers.

Which brings us to the preferred choice of our Air Force Chief, the F-18 E/F or additional SU-30MKM. Before the purchase of SU-30MKM, Boeing offered to take back our 8 Hornets and supply us with Super Hornets. For reasons best known to the policy makers, we opted for SU-30MKM.

On the assumption that the US will be fair in their dealing with us in providing the latest avionics and weaponry, the Super Hornets will be an ideal choice. It is battle tested, advanced AESA radar, Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System that simply allows the pilot to simply look at the target to shoot as oppose to having to align the aircraft. It’s onboard all the US Navy aircraft carriers. If it is good enough to be onboard US Navy Carrier Battle Group to perform fleet defence and strike missions, it will be more than good enough for us. Besides our air force didn’t face any problem in their operation of Hornets.

A combination of existing SU-30MKM and F-18EF would be a wet dream for any Malaysian air force enthusiast.

My wife likes watching movies about ghosts but will never watch it alone. She will only watch it when I am around. Despite knowing in advance that ghost movies will leave her very afraid after the movie ends, she relishes watching any new ghost movies being churned out.

In a futile effort to ease her fears, I tried telling her that her fears of ghosts are irrational. Of course she refuse to even remotely entertain to discuss. Here are some issues that I couldn't quite square it with my understanding of how things work in the universe.

Everything in the universe obeys the same laws of physics, from the humble human to the super massive stars.

Visibility of Ghosts
The only way to be able to see ghosts is to assume that ghosts have mass, because sight is the ability to interpret information reaching our eyes. Normally when light hits a body of mass, some of it is absorbed and some of it bounces and scatters off the surface of the mass and reaches into the light receptors in the retina. Electrical signals send it to our brain to be interpreted and our experience in life tells us what is it that we are seeing.

That begs the question, death caused mass to decay. If the body has decayed what are ghosts ? Some movies like Poltergeist would have you believe that ghosts are energy. But energy is invisible and therefore on what does light bounces off ?

Ghosts Communicating
Lungs and the muscle of the chest and abdomen are instrumental breathing mechanics. The taking of air into the lungs serves as a supply mechanism. When air is continuously expelled from the lungs, the opening and closing of the vocal chords cause sound to be generated by the larynx.

If the body is six feet under, by what means does ghost manipulate their supposed bodily function to produce sound and speak ?

In the movie The Sixth Sense, we are asked to believe that the apparitions communicate with the living not through vocal sounds but through telepathy.

Our 5 senses are our main arsenal in making sense of the world we live in. We are not built to communicate "wirelessly" so to speak. Anything or anyone that plans to interact with the known physical world will have to obey physical laws.

There are 4 known forces that effect the physical world. In relation to macroscopic objects they are electromagnetism and gravity and for microscopic objects they are strong and weak nuclear forces. It is incomprehensible that electromagnetism and gravity play a role in efforts to communicate "wirelessly".

Going Pass Physical Barriers
It appears that in ghost movies, these transient beings walk through doors, walls and other physical barriers with ease.

That appears to violate Newton's laws of motion that states that a body at rest remains at rest until it is subjected to an external force and that for every action there is an equal an opposite reaction. If in the movies we see ghosts walk through doors and walls and that humans pass through ghosts it must also mean that ghosts cannot walk. To be able to walk, pressure need to be applied to the floor which would exert an equal and opposite reaction in return.

Don't get me wrong, i believe that at the end of our fingers lies a whole new world. It is just that stories about ghosts are just ... a little out there.

Speechless ...

I wonder what's on her mind.

A Hornet escorting a Bear who was too close for comfort for the Nimitz.

The Malaysian Police have a glorious past in battling the Communists, monitoring and preventing racial riots in a country where race relations seems to be at fault lines waiting for an incendiary spark to cause seismic rumble.

Most Malaysians finally found a reason to be proud of the Police force, not that we are not grateful for the personal sacrifice made by Police personnel in the discharge of their duties, the capture or should I say recapture of one of Asia's most wanted fugitive, Mas Selamat.

It is interesting to note that newspapers from Malaysia and Singapore have related different stories on the recapture of Mas Selamat. The Singapore Straits Times reported :-

"Intelligence provided by Singapore's Internal Security Department late last year led to a joint operation between Malaysia and Singapore's security agencies that eventually saw them arresting Mas Selamat in Johor in April."

Whereas, Malaysia's intel as usual seems to be more cryptic on the lead that led to the arrest, The Star reported :-

"It is learnt the fugitive, who escaped from a Singapore maximum security detention centre on Feb 27, 2008 was arrested in Johor together with two others by Special Branch officers following intelligence sharing between the police forces of Indonesia and Singapore."

Curiously enough if Mas Selamat was arrested in the first week of April of 2009, this is on the basis of Najib and Lee Hsien Loong informal lunch meeting in Pattaya on the 11th April 2009 whereby Najib informed Lee Hsien Loong of Mas Selamat's capture, why did Singapore's Minister of Home Affairs in his speech trying to raise the morale of his troop on the 15th April 2009 said this :-

"It has been and continues to be a testing time for the Department. I understand that at one time or another, officers from all the various commands have been deployed to work on the case which for some, involved taking on an entirely new type of assignment for the first time in their career. I have been regularly updated on the Department’s efforts to track Mas Selamat Kastari down. I have no doubt of your determination. I have confidence that with patience – which has always been a virtue of the Department – we will recapture him. The keen sense of fellowship and camaraderie among ISD officers, of being one family through thick and thin, that I have seen particularly during this trying episode, will see you through this, and make all of you even stronger."

It is also a little disconcerting to note that, Najib and Lee Hsien Loong did not communicate with one another immediately after the arrest of Mas Selamat.

The Singapore's Minister of Home Affairs must be deeply embarassed if he pieced together the stories now coming out and realised that he has been kept out of the loop from his own Prime Minister.

For the time being, we will have to be contented with making speculations on what evidence led to the arrest of Mas Selamat, it is hoped that in future when the dust settles on the threat posed by terrorist, someone will publish an objective assessment on the story that led to the recapture of Mas Selamat and the role played by the intelligence community of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

Having said that, my congratulations to the intelligence community of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia for the recapture of Mas Selamat and for showing us all that that you guys, despite the quiet arms race going on and the occasional dumb politics played out by politicians, have shown tremendous professionalism and it is good to know that there are sane people out there not interested in playing politics, working together to ensure that South East Asia is safe.

Big Bang Machine

Scientists in Switzerland have switched on the Large Hadron Collider today. It is an attempt to recreate the start of the known Universe using the biggest and most expensive machine ever built. The machine has a circumference of 27 km (17 miles) and lies an average of 100 metres (330 feet) under the ground, straddling French and Swiss territory. It took almost 2 decade to construct !!


The particle accelerator will cause subatomic particles to race around the LHC accelerator ring 11,245 times a second and would cause 600 million collisions every second. From a record of these events scientists hope that they will be able to figure out more about how the Universe began and what it's made of. What in particular, the white coats are looking for is the Higgs Boson or commonly known as the "God Particle" which will explain how matter gains mass. Without mass, the stars and planets in the universe could never have taken shape in the aeons after the Big Bang.

When the particles head into one another in a collission at almost the speed oflight, it will release energy resembling those that occurred during the first trillionth of a second after the Big Bang.


Some detractors have said that the LHC will cause mini black holes that will suck Planet Earth into it.

Hey, we're still here after several hours of the LHC being switched on. But then again, the Machine has been switched on but the proton beams have not collided yet and will only do so in several weeks time (October 21st ?)

Can't wait to read their finding. I'm looking forward to find out whether another dimension exist.