It has come to a point that the Malaysian Army had to be deployed to assist the police in enforcing the Movement Control Order issued by the Prime Minister amidst the Covid 19 pandemic. While the manpower is visually enhanced down on the ground, there are other benefits when bringing on the big guns into the fray, that is the access to military technology.

Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Drones are some of the high tech equipment being discussed by the military to help keep tab on the movement of people in the city centre. This comes after permission was given by the Cabinet to use UAVs and drones by the military, however there might be a need to rope in private industry to assist as well. Army Jeneral, Tan Sri Affendi Buang states that the matter will be discussed with local players in the possibility of increasing the number of equipment to be used during this period.

We could be seeing some of the high tech military aerial equipment used for the first time, as most of army around the world usually keep their surveillance system a secret from other nations, we might just get a glimpse of some heavy duty stuff. Malaysia uses both locally made UAV’s and foreign made models, they locally manufactured versions are even being operated other forces including the fire department, police and navy.

What could be scanning the sky as we speak is the ScanEagle UAV,  which was given by the US Government under the Maritime Security Initiative. The unarmed Boeing made UAV has a 45 minute fly time and a 900Mhz UHF datalink with a 2.4Ghz S-band for video transmission. This is a strictly surveillance unit which is known for its stealth and high altitude capability.

Another system under the RMAF arsenal is the locally made CTRM Aludra, constructed from advanced aerospace composites materials its suitable for applications such as monitoring of disaster area, forest fires, maritime surveillance, law enforcements and traffic monitoring.

Its still unclear if we will be able to see these gorgeous hardware’s flying in Kuala Lumpur, or will the  army just be using a retrofitted DJI drone like the one above. Nevertheless they all look cool and we cant wait to see them hovering in the skies, however if you ever come across there machines, do not share the images on social media as they could be considered as national secrets.