Saturday, July 01, 2006

Why you shouldn't buy F18s



Ex-Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed gives the world a good reason why not to buy the American F18 Hornet fighter jet:
But this great aircraft called F-18, which we bought from America, after buying it, after several months, I got to know that this aircraft cannot be used for any attacks against any country, even if it is not Singapore. The Americans sold the aircraft but the source code is kept by them so you cannot plan anything. You cannot fly the airplane to carry out any bombing attacks against anybody...
(via Tomorrow.sg)

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

He is talking crap. Wat sourcecode!

Anonymous said...

give it to the old man...he is quite funny.

Anonymous said...

Msia dun need aircraft to bomb singapore.

Juz use short or medium range missles will do.

Anonymous said...

The reason why Msian f18s cannot attack other countries is because they bought the "only for exhibition' version. Hahahaha!

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

Urm, he is not talking crap though he usually does. The reason why countries who have bought F-16s, F/A-18s cannot configure it to their liking or tailor it for specific missions is simply that they have not allowed to.

The aircraft does have avionics systems (and being fly by wire and all) that rely on software. These software are usually never revealed or given to customers. Especially not untrusted ones.

The F/A-18, F for Fighter, A for Attack, can be configured for both attack and air combat. It is likely that the Malaysians F/A-18 has been configured for a rudimentary ground attack mission and not the kind of missions that Mahathir would want it to perform. Bombing profiles? Thus, Mahathir is grumbling.

Likewise, if Chavez were to sell F-16s to Iran, it wouldn't have been of much use. No sourcecode or spare parts. Likewise Pakistan revealing the F-16s to China.

Besides, with the G5 artillery and ASTROS-II multiple rocket launchers that the Malaysian army possesses, they can bombard Singapore from any point in Johor. All of Singapore will be in range. Easily. Not much of a problem at all, really.

Anonymous said...

Dont they have techies in msia to hack into the sourcecode?

Anonymous said...

great! just what we need. a fellow neighbour making threat jokes about us.

Anonymous said...

At least they still have the Russian Migs.

Should give our airforce a good fight.

Anonymous said...

Chuang: they can still use the f18s for attack on singapore. heard of kamikaze? hehehe...

Anonymous said...

m'sia isn't stupid. sure, in the event of an attack (possible if some extremist person comes to power), it's like a giant rock hitting an egg. but it's a poisoned egg that will intoxicate the rock.

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

Well Alvin, if you think about it, a fully-fuelled airliner from that loss-making airline up there will be a lot more devastating.

Anonymous said...

Hahahaha!!!

Are you guys discussing all the ways our neighbour can attack us?

Mahathir is a great leader for the malaysians. He may be outspoken and "crazy" most of the time with this choice of words and his views but there aren't that many leaders out there like him.

Anonymous said...

I'm confused about the soucecode thing. So these planes can fly and shoot another plane but not do the air to land bombings?

Anonymous said...

just hack it!

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

Hacking compiled code and reverse-engineering is a possible course of action.

However, after amending and compiling the code, which pilot would want to fly that 'fly by wire' aircraft after that?

Anonymous said...

too bad he doesn't drink. wld be interesting to hear him speak then.

Eisenmeteor said...

i am in the aviation department
and the f/a 18 is an attacker plane
not a multirole.
it's performing capabilities are different from multirole fighters

those are 2 seperate missions / sorties it is irrelevant for such an aircraft to perform one from it is not specified to. thus explaining the cost of multirole fighters and why the americans choose multiroles.

also another example...

think of it as

F/A 22
F/B 22

whats the difference?

attacker
bomber

and why would they come out with variations if there is no limit on role capabilities?

the answer is.. because there is a limit on role capabilities. say in a case where the role of a cat is it being a cat. would it bark or quack? would it moo or roar?

=)

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