Zahid says no cash for BAE warship deal
By Shannon Teoh, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 10 — The government will not proceed with plans to jointly develop navy ships with UK-based BAE Systems, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi said today.
“They have proposed but because of financial constraints, we will not be proceeding,” the defence minister said.
British newspaper The Times reported last month that Malaysia was considering a number of defence joint ventures with the UK including the development of warships with BAE Systems.
The UK paper reported however that the Malaysian government would want assurances that it would be protected from the type of budget overruns that had hit previous BAE projects.
Zahid also said there was no progress on plans to replace the 10 MiG-29 fighter jets with the Eurofighter Typhoon multi-role combat aircraft.
