The case of the missing engines
The two missing General Electric J85-21A engines -- each worth about $15M...
From the
Financial Times:
Missing jet engines spark crisis in Malaysia
The Malaysian government is facing a fresh corruption crisis after officials admitted that two US-made fighter jet engines had disappeared from an air force base after apparently being illicitly sold by military officers to a South American arms dealer.
Najib Razak, prime minister, said there would be a full investigation of the thefts, which happened in 2007 and 2008, when he was defence minister. However, opposition parties accused the government of covering up the incidents.
Lim Kit Siang, parliamentary leader of the opposition Democratic Action party, said the authorities had been �super slow� and claimed that the prime minister�s response had painted �a frightening picture of a government of thieves�.
Idris Ahmad, spokesman for the allied Parti Islam SeMalaysia, said �powerful people� had been involved. �We don�t want only the ikan bilis [anchovies] to be arrested while the sharks are allowed to swim freely,� he said.
The General Electric J85-21A engines, each worth about M$50m ($15m), were spares for the Royal Malaysian Air Force�s Northrop Grumman F-5E Tiger II fighters, which fly from the Butterworth air base near the country�s northern border with Thailand.
Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, defence minister, said the engines and associated equipment were �believed to have been sent to a South American country� after being moved to the Sungai Besi air force base in Kuala Lumpur for maintenance.
A bit more:
Mr Najib has flatly denied any personal corruption, including opposition claims of involvement in an allegedly corrupt submarine deal while he served as defence minister.
Corruption charges were brought this month against a senior port executive and two other officials linked to a controversial development near Kuala Lumpur known as the Port Klang Free Trade Zone.
The arrests followed a damning parliamentary report that found widespread corruption and cost overruns at the project, which has run up debts of more than $1bn.
A bit more at the
Malaysian Insider:
Jet engine theft mystery deepens � The Malaysian Insider
The Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) has now said a brigadier-general and several others sacked in 2007 have nothing to do with the embarrassing theft of two F-5E jet engines found only missing in 2008.
That makes sense.
After all, how can they be sacked before the theft was discovered?
But there precious little sense and details of the theft that has put international spotlight on Malaysia�s lax security, possible role in the global black market arms trade and corruption that has put the country at 56 in the Transparency International graft rankings.
The police are now saying the engines � the General Electric J85-21A turbojets � have been traced to Argentina. It apparently went there by way of a Middle-East nation, believed to be Iran, from Port Klang. And police are now looking for the documentation for the shipping.
No one has yet shed light how the thieves sneaked the engines, the size of a small car, out of the RMAF Sungei Besi airbase, to the port. It is also not known why the engines, said to be spares, are kept in Sungei Besi when the F-5E squadron is based in the RMAF Butterworth airbase.
The greater mystery is why would anyone want to acquire jet engines first made 30 years ago? No one has yet to reveal the answer to that, especially when the RMAF has the F/A-18Ds and the MiG-29Ns using far superior powerplants made with better technology.
For the record, Malaysia bought the 14 F-5Es in 1974 and decommissioned them in 1999. One crashed in the Malacca Strait near Perak on May 31, 1995. There are 13 now but only six are operational after they came back to service in 2003.
Selling the jet engines to Iran also does not make sense as the Islamic republic has 65 F-5 of the A, B, E and F variants, according to Wikipedia. The United States had sold them to Iran in the 1970s when the Shah was in power before being toppled in 1979.
Why would Iran want technology for a jet engine it already possesses? All the more so when its an engine made in the 1970s. Iran already has scientists said to be working on military-capable nuclear technology, so this jet engine technology is obsolete for it.
Curiouser and curiouser -- an engine for a drone with a nuke warhead (my
WAG) Untraceable until now...
Malaysia is very much Islamist -- thought that these people were supposed to set an example and be above corruption and all that rot...
Posted by DaveH at December 26, 2009 9:57 PM