Малайзия Қарулы Күштері: Құрамы мен дамуы

Combined military forces of Malaysia

The Malaysian Armed Forces (Abbr. (Abbreviation): MAF; ; Jawi: ), are the armed forces of Malaysia, consists of three branches; the Malaysian Army, Royal Malaysian Navy and the Royal Malaysian Air Force. The number of MAF active personnel is 113,000 along with the reserve forces at 51,600. It is responsible for assisting civilian authorities to overcome all international threats, preserve public order, assist in natural disasters and participate in national development programs. It is also sustaining and upgrading its capabilities in the international sphere to uphold the national foreign policy of being involved under the guidance of the United Nations (UN).

Malaysian defence requirements are assigned to the Malaysian Armed Forces (Angkatan Tentera Malaysia – ATM). The armed forces has three branches, the Malaysian Army (Tentera Darat Malaysia – TDM), Royal Malaysian Navy (Tentera Laut Diraja Malaysia – TLDM) and the Royal Malaysian Air Force (Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia – TUDM). Malaysia does not have conscription, and the required minimum age for voluntary military service is 18. In the early 1990s, Malaysia undertook a major program to expand and modernise its armed forces. However, budgetary constraints imposed by the 1997 Asian financial crisis held back many of its procurements. The recent economic recovery may lead to a relaxation of budgetary constraints and a resumption of major weapons purchases. In October 2000, the Defence Minister also announced a review of national defence and security policy to bring it up to date. The review addressed new security threats that have emerged in the form of low intensity conflicts, such as the kidnapping of Malaysians and foreigners from resort islands located off the east coast of the state of Sabah and the rising risk of territory disputes with several neighbouring countries. Currently, 1.4% of Malaysia's GDP is spent on the military, and employing 1.23% of Malaysia's manpower. The marine corps will be drawn from all three services. The bulk of it being from one of the three parachute battalions of the 10th Parachute Brigade which will consequently be re designated as a marine battalion. The 9th Royal Malay Regiment (Airborne) and 8th Royal Ranger Regiment (Airborne) have both conducted amphibious warfare training as a secondary mission such as the CARAT exercise with the US Marine Corps (USMC) and other amphibious exercises also conducted with foreign armed forces.

After independence, Malaysia moved forward by establishing and developing its own defence industry. Malaysia has improved its defence industry through its defence companies by locally manufacturing and producing weapons, such as ammunition, rifles, armoured cars, warships and light aircraft including unmanned aerial vehicles for the armed forces. DefTech, Mildef International Technologies and Weststar Defence Industries are among the local companies that emphasize on the maintenance and manufacturing of military land vehicles and the automotive sector. While the Sapura company focuses more on military electronics and systems integration such as; communication systems, tactical systems, command and control systems, training and simulation systems and surveillance systems. Following the Malaysia's National Defence Policy, Malaysian Armed Forces has adopted locally made weapons such as DefTech ACV 300 Adnan, DefTech AV 8 Gempita, DefTech AV 4 Lipanbara, Weststar GK M1 and Handalan. In January 2021, Mildef International Technologies has launched its new Mildef Tarantula HMAV intended for the local market and export. At the Defence Services Asia (DSA) 2022, Mildef International Technologies has launched its second armoured vehicle called the Mildef Rentaka 4x4. Another local company, Cendana Auto also introduced its new Cendana Auto Rover which is ready to deliver to the Malaysian Army. As a country with vast maritime area, Malaysia has long had a great shipbuilding industry since the Malacca Sultanate. During which, the country had been the main shipbuilders in the region. Nowadays, Malaysia houses many shipbuilding companies, giving it its reputation as a country with great maritime expertise and facilities. Through local companies such as Lumut Naval Shipyard, Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation, Destini Berhad and Gading Marine, Malaysia was able to locally build their own major surface combatants and combat boats such as Maharaja Lela class frigate, Kedah class offshore patrol vessel, Jerung class gunboat, Gagah Samudera class training ship, Sri Tiga class fast troop vessel, Gading Marine G2000 18m class combat boat and Sandakan Jaya Teknik class boat. In addition to this, local companies such as Labuan Shipyard and Engineering, Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering and others were also able to execute minor and major maintenance and overhaul to the naval grade vessels locally, without needing to send them abroad. Some of these great achievements were put on display when Malaysia succeeded in completing major overhaul of its Scorpene class submarines. The upgrade program was done locally by Boustead at the RMN submarine base in Labuan, Sabah. Malaysia also already exports their naval vessels to foreign navies such as the Shin Yang made Al Quwaisat class LST to the United Arab Emirates navy and Northern Shipyard made Manta MkII class fast interdiction combat boat to the Nigerian navy. This particular combat boat was marketed under the Singapore based company, Suncraft Private Limited. In the aerospace sector, it is no doubt that Malaysia is one of the aerospace hubs in the region. AIROD is one of the only companies to have received a certificate from the United States (US) based defence company, Lockheed Martin as a C 130 MRO centre outside the US. In 2015, the United States Marine Corps awarded AIROD for MRO operations on its 13 units of C 130 aircraft that were based in Japan. Besides the C 130, AIROD also had an expertise in servicing other types of commercial and military aircraft and had served other customers across the region. Like AIROD, another local aerospace company named ATSC has also played an important role in the aerospace industry in Malaysia. This company focuses more on MRO services for Russian built aircraft such as the Sukhoi Su 30, MiG 29 and Mil Mi 17. In 2017, ATSC was awarded a contract to do a major overhaul and upgrade on the RMAF Sukhoi Su 30 MKM fleet. Since the 1990s, Malaysia, through SME Aerospace and CTRM has been manufacturing aircraft components such as wing parts, nacelles, composites structures and helicopter parts for the Airbus company. These include parts for the A320, A330, A350, A380, A400 and Airbus helicopters. Other than that, SME Aerospace also manufactures pylons for the BAE Systems Hawk AJT for worldwide customers. Although Malaysia does not build major aircraft locally or through any partnerships, Malaysia already has experience in building light aircraft such as the SME Aero Tiga and CTRM Eagle Aircraft Eagle 150. In addition to this, CTRM also builds their indigenous unmanned aerial vehicle called the CTRM Aludra. In 1969, Malaysia set up a firearms manufacturing company, SME Ordnance. Starting out by manufacturing ammunition locally, now SME Ordnance are also able to manufacture high tech firearms. In 1991, SME Ordnance acquired a licence to manufacture Austria made Steyr AUG rifles locally. By 2001, SME Ordnance moving forward by acquiring a licence to manufacture US made M4 Carbine rifles locally. Both locally manufactured Steyr and M4 rifles are currently used by the Malaysian Armed Forces and other government agencies. Besides that, SME Ordnance also provides a wide range of NATO standard ammunitions starting from 5.56 mm to 155 mm calibre, mines, explosions and rockets. Another local firearms company; Aegis Malinnov also developed indigenous pistols called the Malinnov M1P intended to be used by Malaysian government agencies. In conjunction of LIMA 2023, United Arab Emirates EDGE Group had signed an agreement with Malaysian company Ketech Asia Sdn Bhd for the production of CARACAL firearms locally through the transfer of technology. Malaysia also has its own defence technology research statutory board. The Science Technology Research Institute for Defence (STRIDE) is the statutory board under the Ministry of Defence (Malaysia) and is responsible for performing research and development related to defence technologies for the Malaysian Ministry of Defence and Malaysian Armed Forces.

The Five Power Defence Arrangement (FPDA) between Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom is a regional security initiative which has been in place for more than 45 years. It involves joint military exercises held between the five countries. Malaysia also actively takes part in international exercises such as CARAT, RIMPAC and COPE. Joint exercises and war games also have been held with Brunei,Indonesia,France and the United States. Besides that, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam have agreed to host joint security force exercises to secure their maritime borders and tackle issues such as illegal immigration, piracy and smuggling. Previously, there were fears that extremist militants activities in the Muslim areas of the southern Philippines and southern Thailand could spill over into Malaysia. In response, Malaysia began to strengthen its border security.