According to a Leonardo representative at the company’s booth, Leonardo is currently upgrading Kuantan Air Base with the ground-based support and communications equipment needed to support the maritime patrol aircraft’s operations from their future home base. Located on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, operations out of Kuantan will provide the Malaysian military with coverage of the South China Sea.
The representative told Naval News that work on the project was on schedule for the projected start of deliveries in 2026. While they declined to comment on when Royal Malaysian Air Force crews would begin training to operate the ATR 72 MPAs, they added that commonalities with the Italian Air Force’s P-72s could allow future Malaysian crews to gain operational experience during training by flying operational missions with the Italian Air Force, should that option be chosen.
During the exhibition, Leonardo and the Malaysian government signed an agreement for an industrial collaboration program worth 855 million Malaysian ringgit (approximately 180.4 million US dollars) in support of the ATR 72 MPA procurement. The program will provide opportunities for Malaysian companies to be involved with the supply chain and lifecycle support of the ATR 72 MPA, as well as opening up new opportunities for Malaysian universities to collaborate with Leonardo on aeronautical research and development.
While the Royal Malaysian Air Force has yet to formally announce an official name or designation for the ATR 72 MPA in Malaysian service, a poster and scale model aircraft present at its exhibition booth refer to it as the P-72M.
Malaysia’s ATR 72 MPA Procurement
The Royal Malaysian Air Force and Leonardo announced that the former would be procuring two ATR 72 MPAs at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (LIMA) exhibition in May 2023, with the “phase one” contract for the two aircraft, ground support station and other equipment valued at RM789.6 million, or around 166.6 million USD.
The ATR-72 MPA configuration selected by the Royal Malaysian Air Force is based on the ATR 72-600 airframe. Leonardo’s ATOS (Airborne Tactical Observation and Surveillance) mission system is used to combine information gathered by the aircraft’s sensor systems, which include the Leonardo Seaspray 7300E active electronically scanned array radar, an electro-optical sensor turret, electronic warfare sensors, as well as the ULISSES (Ultra-LIght SonicS Enhanced System), an integrated acoustic sensor system that Leonardo says “listens” to hostile submarines to determine their locations.
