Hisham: 12,000 homes to be built under Mindef housing plan

KUALA LUMPUR: At least 12,000 Rumah Keluarga Malaysia Angkatan Tentera (RKMAT) units will be built under the Defence Ministry (Mindef) Housing Blueprint 3.0.

Senior Minister (Defence) Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said the houses would be built under the 12th and 13th Malaysia Plans.

"This year, seven RKMAT projects will be completed at Tok Jalai in Kedah; Kem Oren in Perlis; Kem Tumbi in Kelantan; Segamat; Kem Pakit and Kem Miri in Sarawak; and Kem Bera in Pahang.

"I also want to announce that more houses will be built under the Satu Anggota Satu Rumah Programme," he said in his New Year message at Wisma Perwira on Monday (Jan 17).

He said three locations had been identified for this reason at Kem Transmitter Sungai Besi, Kem Wardieburn Setapak and Kem Genting Klang.

"As for Armed Forces veterans, we have allocated RM2.59mil to maintain and build at least 100 houses for them through the Armed Forces Veterans Housing Initiative," he said.

On acquiring new defence assets, Hishammuddin said the Army would receive seven Pendekar Tanks and 31 8x8 Armoured Gempita vehicles this month to strengthen its capabilities.

"For the Royal Malaysia Navy, the RENCONG Littoral Mission Ship (LMS), which is the country's fourth, will be commissioned on Jan 28 while three AW 139 Maritime Operations helicopters will be acquired in March.

"The Navy has started planning to acquire eight New LMS through a second batch.

"The Royal Malaysian Air Force will increase its maritime surveillance aircraft (MSA) capability on three CN235-200 aircraft, increase the capability of F/A18D aircraft through the Service Life Extension Programme (SLEP), and increase the capacity of Airbus A400M aircraft through Retrofit New SOC 2.5," he said.

He added that the government was also looking into projects under Mindef that were disrupted, such as the procurement of Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) as well as MD530G helicopters for use by Army Aviation.