Denel G5 Mk III Artillery
In 2000, Malaysia bought 22 G5 Mk III (155mm) artillery pieces from South Africa for over 200 million ringgit (52.63 million US dollars). This would work out to be over 2 million US dollars a piece with its accompanying spares, support and logistics vehicles, target acquisition systems.
Like the ASTROS-II, the Iraqis deployed the one hundred G5 artillery against the Coalition in 1991. These G5 artillery pieces also saw action with the South African forces in the eighties.
The G5 Mark III is a 45-calibre artillery piece that is capable of outranging almost any existing artillery at a range of 39 km and 53 km with base-bleed or rocket-assisted rounds.
Type: 155-mm
Barrel Length: (cal) 45
Rate of fire: 3 rds/min for 15 min, 2 rds/min for 60 min
Loader Type: Semi-automatic
Elevation: -3°/+75°
Main Ammunition: 155-mm Frag-HE, M1 HE
Indirect Fire Range (m) Minimum Range: 3000
Maximum Range: 30,000
Complete Projectile Weight (kg): 8.7
Muzzle Velocity: 897 m/s
Sources for this entry includes the G5 entry at FAS, G5 entry at Wikipedia, G5 entry at Strategy Page and several books.
14 comments:
hhmmm ... more money spent on weapons ... if there is a threat to Msia where does the threat come from?
I don't know. They call these large arms purchases 'Force Modernisation'.
I seriously wonder as to its purposes. Are these weapons really bought to meet doctrinal requirements? Are these weapons bought for their effectiveness?
Why these disparate purposes? Why these purchases from a wide variety of arms dealers? Were there other reasons?
Not sure what other reasons really. "force modernisation" ... hhmmmm ...
as a kid growing up n seeing msia army equipment, it's about high time they bought some new stuff. seriously.
70% of the stuff in the msia army is shite n still is.
but then i guess we can only assume as to what they're using it for.
Anonymous, my parents know this Malaysian friend for a few decades. I was just speaking to him recently and the topic of this 'force modernisation' came up and I think the choice of armaments was dictated by doctrinal requirements but 'pocket-lining'.
I was also talking to another friend who told me that a father of a mutual friend (more of an acquaintance) of ours actually defected from the Malaysian armed forces. He was a mid-level officer. Being a Chinese, he had no prospects and he was dissatisfied with their 'racist' policies, so he defected. Sorry no details. This one is sensitive.
Merv, may I know what you saw?
And why are the armaments then shite? And why are the current still shite? Perhaps, if you could elaborate.
welll... imagine firing vietnam war era m16s. yes, that batch that was infamous for jamming.
then from what i heard, most of their tanks aren't very well maintained. at least friends who know people in the rmaf tell us the sad story of equipment that don't really work.
and oh yes, if you happen to stay in sarawak, your army there gets 3rd day hand me downs from kl.
and lets not even talk about the number of fighter planes that fall out of the sky every year over there due to "mechanical failure"
and dont even get me started on that locally made helicopter called the nuri they so love. haha
M16s. I used ancient M16s when I was doing my national service. Those are old ones manufactured by Colt (and not Singapore) and they do not have the forward-assists that all M16s have. Vietnam vintage, almost. Guess what? They don't jam if you take care of them. Jamming only happens to bad, untrained soldiers, or if you are rolling in sand. M16s are excellent rifles, even old ones. Many friends, both Singaporeans and Americans (who are really knowledgable about these things) can attest to that. My personal experience too. If they are failing in Malaysia, you would have to speak to the Malaysian armourers and troops using those weapons. It's a matter of training and maintenance. I used ancient M16s and they hit targets easily at 300 metres.
The Nuri is actually the licensed S-61 Sea King helicopter and is one of the most reliable helicopters ever built. Guess what? The US president uses one. Reagan was a big user too. The current president uses one. It's an excellent helicopter. Why is it crashing in Malaysia? I'm afraid you would have to ask the Malaysian air force.
For Malaysian tanks, the Scorpion is a light tank that was in service with the British army. A good tank. The British army is still using two similar types. The Sabre and the Scimitar which are armed with the 30 mm Rarden cannon.
The Scorpion was armed with a 75mm for fire support. When the Malaysians bought it, they opted for a 90mm gun. And obviously, the chassis may not have been stressed to carry a more powerful gun with a larger recoil. Why did the Malaysian army choose that big weapon? No one knows. Prestige? The bigger penis factor? The insecurity factor? Probably. After all, Malaysians are always into prestige projects. Big towers, big capitals, big dicks. You know. Yes, I heard that upon firing they crack. Again, why did they opt for something like that? The Brits opted for the 30mm Rarden and phased out the 90mm guns. Better choice in hindsight apparently...
I can speak more on this. Even the armoured cars which are armed with the 90mm Cockerill FS gun.
I suspect a lot of the problems are not due to fatigue (ie airframe, etc). I think they are due to bad maintenance, poor choices, wrong usage, etc.
Oh Merv, this may just happen to the whole load of new equipment they bought.
Did you know that they bought the Beretta AR70/90 assault rifles?
Then, they bought the Steyr AUG?
Heh. Next thing, they will be buying the FN F2000 or the AN-94...
There's nothing old or outdated or obsolete in the equipment they were using. Check out our AMX-13s and you will know what I mean...
Correction in a post above. The British fielded the 75mm gun model. No one in the world (the customers or the Brits) fielded the 90mm gun model except Malaysia.
Yep. I can attest to hitting targets at 300 meters, as long as I remember to properly apply the techniques taught, even with 'prostitute' rifles. (i.e. the rifles which are used over and over again by different batches of NSmen). It's not really so difficult and well, a properly maintained M-16 doesn't jam at all. If a rifle jams repeatedly then either the soldier or the armourer needs to be shot. (Comment from one of my trainers 3 ICTs ago.)
As for the tanks, oh yes, the AMX-13s are obsolete. The Israelis decided that these frog weapons weren't up to the task anymore perhaps since the Suez War. And I was told Singapore is where all that Israeli junk ended up. And if not for someone is SAE coming up with the great idea of upgrading the engines to Diesel to the SM-1 standard, those craps should have been scrapped a damned long time ago. And I wonder, just what will be replacing the SM-1? The 75mm on that tank probably won't even scratch the armor of those Malaysian PT91s.
hmmm ... interesting.
yeap. the msian military is moving to upgrade their stuff. the last 12 years have seen them upgrading heavily.
but unfortunately, mostly cosmetic. i swear everything is just going to the nothern states and western states and little going to the borneo states where they're needed.
Needed? How?
I will be posting an image of a new Malaysian chopper soon. I saw it yesterday.
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