The Commander of the Malaysian Army General Tan Sri Dato' Sri Haji Affendi Bin Buang on June 22, 2022 made a working visit to PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI) in Bandung. General Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Haji Affendi had the opportunity to directly observe the progress of the two remaining units of the three CN235-220 aircraft belonging to the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF /TUDM), which are being converted into Maritime Surveillance Aircraft (MSA) through the Maritime Security Initiative (MSI) program.
The CN-235-220M number M44-05 was reported to have arrived at the RMAF’s Kuching Air Base in Sarawak state on 17 June 2022 and was one of three RMAF CN-235 that were sent to Indonesian aviation company PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI) in September 2020 for rework to an MSA variant.The program to convert the CN-235 transport aircraft to MSA variants was financed by the US Government under its Indo-Pacific Maritime Security Initiative (MSI) Program, which aims to improve the maritime surveillance capabilities of partner nations.PTDI worked in cooperation with the US company Integrated Surveillance and Defence Inc. (ISD), which supplied and integrated the Mission Management System (MMS) for the three aircraft.MMS devices installed on TUDM’s CN235-220 MSA include FLIR ( Forward Looking Infra Red ), a camera equipped with Infrared to detect and classify targets and record situations around the flying area for mission evaluation.The Belly Radome, where a Radar Dome is attached under the fuselage, scans the surface with a 360-degree Search Radar that can detect small targets up to 200 NM. The Radar is equipped with an Automatic Identification System (AIS), an automatic tracking system to identify ships to obtain the position of suspicious objects.
