.Chapter 73: Expanding the Army to prepare for war

Sheng Shiping went to Thailand, but Mu Haoyang did not feel relaxed.

On August 13, he flew to Kuala Lumpur as a representative of the party and met with General Mahathir, the chief of staff of Malaysia, on behalf of Huang Zhibo.

Interestingly, Mahathir is an admiral.

Huang Zhibo asked Mu Haoyang to go to Kuala Lumpur, one was that Mu Haoyang was a lieutenant general, and the other was that Mu Haoyang had just led the fleet to achieve a brilliant victory in the Indian Ocean.

More importantly, now is a great time to win over Malaysia.

According to Huang Zhibo, Singapore has selected a queue and requested the United States to provide support, so China should also express its attitude as soon as possible.

Mu Haoyang went to Kuala Lumpur and just sang foreplay.

His mission was not to discuss national affairs with the Chief of Staff of Malaysia, but to finalize several arms trade contracts that had been negotiated for several years.

As early as 2020, Malaysia sent a military delegation to China. The then Chief of Staff also visited Chengdu Aircraft Manufacturing Company and asked about the progress of the J-22 under development. He showed great interest in this advanced fighter. Then it was reported that Malaysia wanted to participate in the development work. However, the Chinese authorities quickly came forward to refute the rumors, claiming that the J-22 was a fighter developed by China.

After the first flight of j-22, the Malaysian military delegation visited China again.

In 2025, Malaysia announced the "Fighter Replacement Plan" and issued bids to all fighter manufacturers around the world to conduct public bidding for purchases of 120 fighter jets. China's Cheng Fei and Shen Fei respectively took out two types of fighter jets, j-22 and j, to participate in the bidding. After three rounds of screening, j-22 finally won the order from the Malaysian Air Force, but it had to be improved according to Malaysia's requirements. The official number is j not the model code, but the national code of Malaysia.

However, this contract has not been implemented.

There is only one reason: Chengfei’s production line has been fully loaded.

Although the Chinese Air Force's orders can be suspended, after all, after the large-scale mass production of J-20 and the J-20b and J-20c were put into service one after another, the Air Force's demand for multi-purpose fighter jets was not urgent, but the Navy's J-25 orders must be completed on time. In addition, Pakistan and North Korea placed orders before this.

Even if production speed is accelerated, it will not be Malaysia's turn until 2030.

The result was that in 2026, before the formal signing of the contract, Malaysia proposed to either deliver the first batch of J-22m before the end of 2027, or sell production lines and production patents. It is unlikely to deliver in advance, and Cheng Fei only promised to help Malaysia build an aircraft overhaul factory. In any case, the J-22 is a very advanced fighter aircraft, with combat performance that is almost the same as the F-35, and China has no reason to sell production lines.

You know, Pakistan has not obtained the production rights of j-22.

Economically speaking, the profit of selling finished products was even greater. At that time, the unit price of j-22m was 340 million yuan, and selling production patents could make a profit of up to 4 billion yuan, which was only one-tenth of the finished product. Not to mention Cheng Fei would not agree, the Air Force, as the developer of j-22, would not agree.

This matter was put on hold, but Malaysia has no better choice and has never given up.

Although the problem of buying f-35a is not very big based on the relationship between Malaysia and the United States, and the export of f-35a is far less than expected. The United States is vigorously promoting this fighter, but not to mention the price, the United States will definitely not open the f-35a data bus to Malaysia. Therefore, the f-35a obtained by Malaysia is only 60% of the combat power, which is far from meeting the combat needs of the Malaysian Air Force.

More importantly, Singapore is the developing country of F-35a and one of the most important countries with F-35a. If there is a military conflict with Singapore in the future, Malaysia's F-35a will definitely not be able to defeat Singapore's F-35a and will not even be able to take off the air to fight.

-50, etc., either the price is too expensive or the performance is too single, which makes the Malaysian Air Force not very satisfied, and it is basically uncompetitive in front of Chengfei's j-22m.

The problem arises, not just the fighter jet project.

Before 2027, the Malaysian Army planned to purchase a batch of main combat equipment, especially main combat tanks, to compete with Singapore's "Leopard 2a6". At that time, the winner was the ZTM main combat tank of China Northern Heavy Industries, and signed a contract in 2026.

According to the contract, Northern Heavy Industry will deliver forty-eight ZTMs by the end of 2027.

Before Mu Haoyang flew to Kuala Lumpur, Northern Heavy Industry had delivered forty-eight ZTMs in advance, which was highly appreciated by the Malaysian Army.

The problem is that the tank trade contract does not involve ammunition.

At that time, the Malaysian Army only required standard ammunition, but did not require the latest armor-piercing bombs. Although Northern Heavy Industry had proposed that only with the latest tungsten alloy armor-piercing bombs could the ztm reach 100% combat effectiveness, for price reasons, the Malaysian Army did not adopt this suggestion, but decided to purchase low-priced standard armor-piercing bombs.

After using it for a while, the Malaysian Army realized the importance of armor-piercing bombs.

When using standard armor-piercing bombs, it is difficult for ztm's firepower to deal with "Leopard 2a6" at normal combat distances, so there is no advantage. Only with new armor-piercing bombs can you overwhelm the opponent in firepower, otherwise these expensive main battle tanks will become decorations.

As a result, the Malaysian Army proposed an additional order agreement, intending to urgently purchase a batch of ammunition.

The problem arises. Northern Heavy Industry has offered higher prices, and the production period is scheduled to be at the end of 2028. If the goods are to be delivered in 2027, either Malaysia will pay the contract penalty for Northern Heavy Industry, or it will only purchase spot goods from the Chinese Army.

As for the price, it will definitely not be much lower.

Of course, this is a matter. The Chinese Army began to purchase new armor-piercing bombs in 2020, and the inventory was very large. I am afraid that it would not be used for ten years. Selling some to Malaysia is nothing.

At that time, the biggest problem was on the Navy's submarine project.

Since Indonesia first introduced two second-hand submarines at the beginning of this century, a "submarine fever" has begun in Southeast Asia, and other countries have begun to purchase submarines one after another. Before 2010, Malaysia ordered two "squid"-class conventional submarines that seemed very advanced in France at the time before.

After using it, the Malaysian Navy found that French goods were not as powerful as boastful.

By 2025, the two "Squid" classes had fallen behind and there was little room for improvement. The Malaysian Navy urgently needed new submarines to supplement the lineup.

There is not much choice for purchasing submarines, with only four main sources of goods, namely France, Germany, Russia and China.

The Malaysian Navy did not consider French goods, while the German Type 212 and 214 were already behind. The latest Type 216 was expensive, while the Russian conventional submarine was very cheap, but its performance was not very good. After all the choices, the Malaysian Navy finally chose the Type 042 of the Wuhan Shipyard in China.

At that time, the Pakistan Navy had already ordered the Type 042, and several countries planned to purchase such advanced submarines.

In 2025, the Malaysian Navy sent an expedition team to the Wuhan Shipyard and inquired in detail about the situation of the Type 042 and was very satisfied with this submarine.

However, the negotiations were not going well because the Malaysian Navy hoped to acquire two submarines in 2027, and the construction period of the Wuhan Shipyard had been scheduled to be after 2032. The reason is very simple. At that time, Venezuela and Iran had become overseas users of the Type 042 after Pakistan. The Wuhan Shipyard had to arrange production period according to the time of signing the contract. Even if the Malaysian Navy was willing to spend a high price, it had to queue up.

In 2026, the Malaysian Navy sent a delegation to China again.

This time, I did not go to the Wuhan shipyard, but to the Qingdao Naval Command, hoping to rent two conventional submarines from the Chinese Navy.

Teng Yaohui agreed very readily, but during the approval process, it was rejected by the General Staff.

It’s not that Huang Zhibo is unwilling to rent the submarine to Malaysia, but that there are indeed few submarines to rent, because before that, eight 041s had been leased to Pakistan. The Chinese Navy retained less than twenty conventional submarines, and before the large-scale service of the attack nuclear submarine, it cannot be missing. More importantly, among these more than ten conventional submarines, only four are the Type 041.

If you rent two ships to the Malaysian Navy, the Chinese Navy will have to rely on the 039 type to conquer the world.

At the beginning of the year, the Malaysian Navy sent a delegation to China again, and went directly to the General Staff to ask Huang Zhibo about renting a submarine.

The result was still not ideal, and Huang Zhibo did not give any reply.

Of course, the military trade between China and Malaysia is not just troublesome and has no results.

In 2024, Malaysia became the second overseas user of the zdk03 tactical early warning aircraft, and it was the zdk03m model with enhanced performance.

Although "m" is still the national code of Malaysia and is not a specific model, compared with similar early warning aircraft sold to Pakistan, the improvement of zdk03m is very significant, such as adding an electromagnetic confrontation system, using a data link with higher communication efficiency, and adding a directional communication system before delivery, with an increase of eight control interfaces, basically having air combat command capabilities.

In terms of performance, except for the slightly worse detection capabilities, zdk03m basically reached the level of a strategic early warning aircraft.

Malaysia has therefore become the third country in Southeast Asia to be equipped with early warning aircraft, and the performance of zdk03m exceeds that of Singapore and Indonesia.

Relying on four zdk03m aircraft, the combat capability of the Malaysian Air Force has at least doubled.

If the j-22m can arrive in time, the Malaysian Air Force is likely to surpass the Singapore Air Force in the short term and become the most powerful air force in Southeast Asia.

There is only one reason Malaysia has vigorously expanded its armaments: the freshwater agreement with Singapore is about to expire.

No matter how the dispute is resolved in Tamsui, Malaysia needs to strengthen its military strength, fight against strong enemies, and defend national interests...

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Chapter completed!