The crew of a Royal Malaysian Navy vessel conducting a firing exercise against a fast attack craft in the South China Sea. The defence ministry has been allocated RM22 billion in the 2027 budget. (RMN pic)PETALING JAYA: A RM7.1 billion federal budget allocation for defence and security equipment should be used to solve years of underinvestment in the armed forces, a defence analyst says.
Izzah Khairina Ibrahim.Izzah Khairina Ibrahim of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia said that defence spending had been kept at about 1% of the country's GDP, despite equipment having exceeded their service life.
She said military assets might not be adequate against threats ranging from non-traditional security challenges, grey-zone coercion, asymmetric, hybrid threats and high-tech warfare.
