BRISTOL AEROSPACE OF Canada has been holding discussions with Malaysian industry about a proposed upgrade of the country's Northrop F-5E/Fs.
The Royal Malaysian Air Force's (RMAF) fleet of around 15 F-5s is scheduled to be phased out of service shortly, following the delivery of replacement Mikoyan-MAPO MiG-29N fighters.
An unsolicited industry approach to upgrade the fighters, believed to be led by Malaysian Airlines (MAS), has been made to the Malaysian Government. The F-5s would then either be retained by the RMAF, or possibly sold overseas.
The Malaysian Helicopter Services (MHS)-controlled national carrier is keen to broaden its engineering activity into non-civil-aircraft areas and is known to have held talks with Bristol Aerospace on F-5 upgrade collaboration.
Industry sources say that the proposed upgrade calls for MAS to take responsibility for avionics-systems integration. Structural work would be likely to be undertaken by the airline's MHS-owned sister company, Airod.
Malaysia's surviving F-5s are now more than 20 years old and would require considerable life-extension work if retained. The aircraft have already had to be treated for extensive lower-longeron cracking.
The Malaysian Government has still officially to respond to the upgrade proposal and it is unclear how much RMAF support the idea commands. An earlier proposal to upgrade and re-engine Malaysia's elderly McDonnell Douglas A-4PTMs proved to be a non-starter.
Defence observers note that the air force is logistically fully stretched in attempting to absorb its new MiG-29s, British Aerospace Hawk 100/200s and, from early 1997, the first of eight McDonnell Douglas F-18Ds (Flight International, 13-19 December, 1995, P24).
Source: Flight International
