The Hürjet, which will be co-manufactured with Malaysian partners, will be a long-term investment in local engineers 

by PRIYA VASU / Pic credit: tusas.com

THE Turkish bidders for the hotly contested Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) fighter aircraft said they are offering Malaysia co-production of a new fighter jet as part of their offerings. 

Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc management said it will also provide technology transfer and is willing to cut its bid price by as much as 30%, in order to secure RMAF’s open tender for military aircraft. 

Turkish Aerospace is one of six international companies that submitted bids to supply 18 light combat aircraft (LCA) to RMAF. 

The Turks are offering their “Hürjet”, which is yet to be in production. 

The “Hür”, which means free, offers planned capabilities including air-to-air refuelling, helmet-mounted display, full glass cockpit with head-up display and embedded tactical training system, as well as fitted with humanmachine-interface with Turkish fifth-generation fighter aircraft programme and more.

The “Hürjet” was developed by Turkish Aerospace in 2017 via internally-generated fund. The Presidency of Turkish Defence Industries (SSB), which is a government entity, owns 45.45% of Turkish Aerospace with 54.49% owned by the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation.

The Turkish jet is still at the prototype stage with planned production in 2023.

SSB president Ismail Demir said the jet — which will be co-manufactured with Malaysian partners — will be a long-term investment in Malaysian engineers. 

He said such investment would help Malaysia to reduce dependency on foreign aircraft suppliers (direct purchase) and work towards achieving total self-sufficiency in producing domestic battle-proven military aircraft. 

“In 10 years, Malaysia will be able to jointly produce battle aircraft with Turkey or a more advanced version. In 20 years from now, you will have Malaysian-made jet fighters. This is what we promise. 

“We would engage your engineers and technicians into the project. Besides the ‘know-how’, we transfer to your local engineers the ‘know-why’ information too. These are the knowledge you can only acquire in the working process. This process may not be offered by other parties (bidders). We are investing in Malaysian engineers and we hope the Malaysian officials can see the bigger picture. Others might assemble aircraft in Malaysia, but they may not be committed to teaching and investing in your workforce, mainly engineers like the Turkish would do,” said Demir to the Malaysian media delegation in Ankara, Turkey recently. 

The other five companies that submitted their bid to the RMAF are India’s Tejas fighter jet manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), Korea Aerospace Industries with its FA 50 fighter jet, L-15 fighter jet manufactured by China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corp and Italy’s Leonardo made M-346 planes and Aerospace Technology Systems Bhd with Russian made MiG 35 fighter jets. 

The RMAF listed five requirements for the LCA bidders which are 30% of the fighter jet production has to be local content, must deliver the LCAs 36 months after the contract is signed, air-to-air refuelling capabilities, beyond visual range missile and supersonic capabilities. 

Turkish Aerospace decided to set up an office in Cyberjaya, Selangor, and a science park in Putrajaya in November last year as part of its initiative to woo the Malaysian officials to collaborate on the “Hürjet” project and to further solidify its presence and ties in Malaysia. 

In 2020, HAL too expressed its interest to establish maintenance facilities in Malaysia. 

However, there are no further developments into this to date. 

While other bidders have not made any announcements on possibly establishing a logistics presence in Malaysia. 

Malaysia has long been a Russian-origin military aircraft customer. However, poor services of aircraft maintenance and the difficulty obtaining original equipment manufacturer parts and replacement components have been an issue in the past. 

RMAF is looking to retire some of the older Malaysian aircrafts such as Bae Hawk Mk 108 and Mk 208 in service to make room for newer ones.