32 years old and still going strong!

Delivered new to the RMAF in January of 1977 carrying serial FM-1720. It was then re-serialled to M23-16 in 1984 and is reported to have briefly carried civilian registration 9M-ZAR in 2008 (for modification and certification work?). A total of 16 RMAF S-61's were written off over the years, with M23-16 being the last one, suffering a hard landing on August 2, 2019. Actually, this very accident - luckily without loss of life - sealed the fate of the surviving 12 or so RMAF's Nuris, as the fleet was permanently grounded. Keeping them airworthy has become an issue in the previous years anyway.

1968 built M23-08 (ex FM-1708, ex FM-1148) was among the first batch of ten S-61 Nuri's (Parrot) delivered to the Royal Malaysian AF as from 1967. They were initally serialled FM-1140 to FM-1149. While FM-1143 was written off in 1972, the remaining nine in 1975 were re-serialled to FM-1701 to FM-1709. A further 33 Nuri's were deliverd between 1971 and 1978, bring the total number operated by the RMAF to 43. Unfortunately, 16 helicopters were lost over the years, finally grounding the fleet in August of 2019, after more than 50 years of operation.

Built in 1989, M37-01 is the sole Falcon 900 operated by the Royal Malaysian AF, and current as of December 2023. Other Biz-Jets operated by the RMAF over the years included two BAe-125, a Learjet 35, a Canadair CL600 Challenger and two BD-700 Global Express (one of them - M48-02 - is still current as of December 2023). A Boeing 737-700 (M53-01) was also operated in the VIP role between 2003 and 2018, while a 1975 built Fokker F-28 seems to remain operational as M28-01 too.

Slide is part of private collection. Photographer unknown. Aircraft ready for delivery by Grumman.

Part of private slide collection, photographer sadly unknown. It was operated by 11 squadron but on this picture it doesn't wear any squadron markings.

A rarish photo of a Malaysian Hawk 200 fighter. 'Mongoose' is presumably a pilot's nickname. In 2015, 6 Skuadron was moved from Butterworth to Labuan Island, off the north coast of Sabah, and on 1 June 2021 Hawks scrambled to intercept Chinese aircraft over the South China Sea.

One of two Tigereyes then operated by the TUDM.

Three launch

Having already operated twenty F-5's of various versions since the mid 1970's, the Royal Malaysian AF in 1980 became the launch customer for the rare RF-5E Tigereye, of which two were added to the TUDM (Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia) fleet in 1983. Assigned to SQN 12 "Scorpions" at Butterworth, they were serialled M29-19 (US FY # 80-0333) and M29-20 (80-0334). Before getting the M29-xx serials, Malaysia's F-5's carried FM-22xx codes. Also in the early 1980's, two F-5E and a single F-5F were ordered as attrition replacements, bringing the total number of F-5's operated by the RMAF to 25.