THE Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) has admitted its existing aerial infrastructure is structurally insufficient to provide comprehensive oversight of the country's maritime territory, prompting an aggressive procurement drive for advanced unmanned systems and long-range patrol aircraft.
Speaking at a press conference following RMAF's sixty-eighth anniversary parade at Subang Air Base, Chief of Air Force General Tan Sri Muhamad Norazlan Aris outlined the stark limitations currently facing national security operations in the increasingly volatile South China Sea.
“To be frank, at the moment, it is insufficient. We only have three CN-235 Maritime Surveillance Aircraft, and of course, that number is not enough to monitor the country's entire maritime domain, Norazlan stated openly.”
In response to these strategic shortfalls, the military branch is moving swiftly to operationalise newly acquired assets while simultaneously pushing for secondary procurement phases.
Central to this modernisation effort is the deployment of the newly launched Turkish-made Anka-S unmanned aerial system, which operates directly out of Labuan Air Base.
The medium-altitude, long-endurance drone fleet is tasked with executing high-altitude surveillance missions and gathering vital intelligence across the strategic shipping corridors of the maritime domain.
The air force chief revealed that plans are already underway to expand this unmanned fleet significantly to establish a persistent, multi-layered electronic net over Malaysian waters.
“The RMAF is planning the second phase of the Anka-S acquisition and, in principle, the ministry has agreed. We are waiting for the allocation to acquire another three Anka-S systems equipped with ISR and electronic warfare capabilities,” Norazlan explained, noting that the long-term objective is to operate a robust fleet of up to nine Anka-S drones.
Complementing the drone architecture will be the introduction of the ATR72MP maritime patrol aircraft, scheduled for delivery next year.
Equipped with enhanced range and vastly superior sensor arrays compared to legacy assets, the incoming manned platforms are expected to significantly boost wide-area search operations.
These acquisitions form part of the broader Capability Development Plan 2055, a comprehensive structural blueprint that has now advanced past the fifty per cent completion milestone. Beyond raw hardware acquisition, the multi-decade plan prioritises holistic operational readiness.
“The RMAF's focus was not only on acquiring new assets but also included developing operational capabilities, strengthening air defence systems, enhancing drone capabilities and training a new generation of fighter pilots,” Norazlan said.
He emphasised that these continuous efforts were important to ensure the RMAF remained relevant and capable of facing increasingly complex and diverse security threats in the future. - June 18, 2026
