Cyber threat poses a new challenge to national defence, testing its might and technological sophistication, Armed Forces chief Tan Sri Zulkifeli Mohd Zin said.
He said as cyber threat continue to rise over the years, it was very important for the armed forces to get acquainted with the new challenge which would definitely become more rigorous with technological developments in future.
“What is important for us not is to cooperate not only with countries in the region, but also other countries of interest to us in terms of defence and economy,” he said while emphasising on the importance of information and intelligence exchange.
Apart from cyber threat, he said the country’s defence sector was also confronted with mounting unconventional threats such as cross-border crime, piracy, human trafficking and chemical attacks as conflicts between countries had greatly dissipated.
Zulkifeli said the threats would differ with changing times although the objective might be similar and the armed forces would learn from the experience to ensure that the national defence structure would continue to be organised and strong.
“We are always ready and are making preparations. We are in the state of preparedness, but we do not know to what extent the threats might be.
However, the armed forces have the expertise and systems to thwart these threats,” he said.
Zulkifeli said the armed forces were also working to strengthen the national defence industry by forging cooperating with defence related companies and other industries as a two-pronged strategy to cater for military and public use as developing the defence sector was costly.
“Although we’d started developing the defence industry rather late compared to other countries, our defence industry is becoming mature and more focus in giving priority to what should be developed first,” he added.
As the defence budget is rather limited, Zulkifeli called for the local defence industry to developed more aggressively.
“At times the allocations we’d got weren’t enough. So we’ve got to be more creative in using and distributing the provisions so that the products or assets produced get the best value for money, apart from reducing maintenance and procurement costs,” he added. (BERNAMA)