A further highlight of the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (LIMA) 2023 exhibition is the display of one of the Royal Malaysian Air Force’s CN235 transport aircraft modified for maritime surveillance and funded by the US Government.
Three CN235s have been upgraded by PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI, Indonesia Aerospace) to CN235MSA (Maritime Surveillance Aircraft) configuration for the RMAF under a contract awarded under the US Government’s Maritime Security Initiative (MSI) program.
The first aircraft was handed back to the RMAF after upgrade at PTDI’s facility in Bandung in June 2022. The event occurred three and a half years after the US had signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) to bolster the interoperability of US and Malaysian forces.
“The effort was facilitated by the US Navy’s Building Partner Capacity program, aligned with the US Government’s Maritime Security Initiative, which is intended to assist the Malaysian government in increasing maritime security and maritime domain awareness within the Malaysian Exclusive Economic Zone,” a US Navy statement detailed at the time of handover.
“The project to integrate an Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) upgrade into the aircraft was undertaken by the RMAF in cooperation with the Naval Air Systems Command’s Security Cooperation Office and Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) AIRWorks.”
The scope of work included a maritime surveillance mission suite, maritime surveillance radar, an electro-optical infra-red (EO/IR) turret, line-of-sight data-link and a roll-on/roll-off mission system operator station. The US Navy is also delivering mobile and fixed ground stations to increase the RMAF’s ISR capability.
Malaysia received eight CN235M-220 transport aircraft manufactured by PTDI under a partnership with Spain’s CASA (now Airbus Defence and Space) in the 1990s and 2000s, although one was subsequently written off in an accident.