Malaysia signs deal for UK made SAMs

Malaysia has signed the deal for the procurement of the Thales Starstreak V-Shorads, ahead of the official visit of the UK Prime Minister on  Thursday.Industry sources told Malaysian Defence that the deal

involved Global Komited Sdn Bhd which will supply the GM-K1 vehicles and Thales UK, the producer of the Starstreak V-Shorads. The deal will also include light weight multiple launchers, radars and command and control system.Global Komited, a subsidiary of Weststar Group and Thales signed the agreement to market the Starstreak system to the Malaysian Armed Forces at  DSA 2014.
The Starstreak will replace the Thales Starbust V-Shorads which had been used in the air defence of military bases.

As the signing today is for the LOA, the  LOI for the deal would have been signed much earlier but was kept under wraps until today.David Cameron, the UK PM will be in Kuala Lumpur Thursday for a 12 hour visit, the last leg of his  South East Asia tour and the first to the region since his recent re-election.The Starstreak deal is the only defence item procured during the visit.