The Sky Is Falling!

Heh!Heh!Heh! Just when I said this in jest I received advanced info that the Cabinet had decided to replace the Nuri's and this news has been splashed across today's newspapers and announced in yesterday's news shows. But the info I received in any case was that this will be a two year exercise and the earliest the new helicopters will be delivered is stil three to four years from now.

Nevertheless one of the forumers cautioned that this may be just using the coming announcement of CSAR helicopters procurement as a short-cut to show the government is doing something to replace the Nuris while the main exercise to procure new helicopters for the transport role may still be up in the air. However I still hope that this announcement is for the replacement of transport helicopter roles and I do not care if this project will be for the RMAF or Army Air Unit, as long as the Nuris are replaced. We have seen the experience of MI-17 to be supplied under Airod being rejected by the Armed Forces and causing the project being stuck in no man's land. So I hope this time the International Tender will be swiftly conducted and awarded, as I am sure all the paperwork and specifications and requirements for the helicopter requirement has already been prepared, so no need to delay the exercise. Our servicemen need such quick action to avoid further unnecessary deaths in case more Nuri crashes. As was featured in TV3's news last night, an ex-serviceman wrote in to say do not wait until our people prefers to walk out of the jungle than to risk martyrdom flying in the 'flying coffin' that the Nuri has become to most people. What's the fuss, replace the oldest and most unairworthy first, nobody is asking for en-bloc replacement as I am sure the six units selected for auto-hovering is the most airworthy units and should be at least flyable for the next 15 years as per what RMAF keeps saying. These can be kept until such time as warranted. Let the replacement exercise be a win-win situation for everybody. Malaysia deserves this.