COMMENT | Our new Minister of Defence Mohamed Sabu recently dropped a bombshell (well, not literally) when he revealed that only four out of the 28 Russian fighter jets owned by the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF), are air-worthy.

He said that the RMAF had 18 Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30MKM and 10 MiG-29 jet fighters and that the remaining 14 Sukhois are under repair. He further said the RMAF was unable to properly maintain the airworthiness of these fighter jets.

Not long after, as expected, the new defence minister cheerily told us that the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition 2019 (Lima’19) will become “a reference point for the government to develop and modernise the military, civil aerospace and maritime requirement”. From their past purchasing patterns, you know what to expect when the defence ministry goes shopping at Lima 2019…