DSA 2024: Malaysian Army plans life extension programme for PT-91M tan…

The PT-91M main battle tanks (MBTs) in Malaysian service will be maintained by DEFTECH (recently acquired MMC Defence), which had the contract to provide in-country support for the tanks. (Malaysian Ministry of Defence)

Malaysia's state-owned DRB-HICOM Defence Technologies (DEFTECH) has outlined the Malaysian Army's plans to upgrade its plaguing fleet of PT-91M ‘Pendekar' main battle tanks (MBTs) at the Defence Services Asia (DSA) 2024 exhibition held in Kuala Lumpur from 6 to 9 May.

Wan Mohamed Aizat bin Wan Mohamed, lead engineer for weapon system integration at FNSS, told Janes on 6 May that the Malaysian Army plans to upgrade the PT-91M tanks – delivered to the army by Poland's PHZ Bumar between 2007 and 2011 – as a part of the MBT's life extension programme.

The upgrades will include the integration of a new fire-control system (FCS), which will be supplied by Polish Armaments Group (PGZ), with the tank, Wan Mohamed said.

Other upgrades include the addition of new controllers and displays for the turret, a new autoloader system, a new day-and-night-vision camera in the tank, and a remote-controlled weapon station (RCWS), Wan Mohamed added.

“We [DEFTECH] have proposed the plan to upgrade the tank to the army. The service has accepted the proposal, except [for] the addition of RCWS, which the army doesn't want to include in the tank as a part of the upgrades,” Wan Mohamed said.

All 48 in-service PT-91M MBTs will be upgraded, he added. Janes assesses that the tank's Renk transmission and electronic components of the gunner's laser rangefinder will also be upgraded or replaced in the life extension programme.