Page 20 - INDO DEFENCE 2022 - DAY 2

USD13.6 billion in total. The news was - now called F-15IDN - including how many as glide bombs and air-to-ground missiles
quite surprising for the Indonesian defence will be bought. While there is still no offi- for the air force. It’s sufficient to say that in
enthusiast community, not only due to the cial announcement from the Indonesian just a few short years under Joko Widodo’s
cost and the amount of aircraft offered for Ministry of Defence or TNI-AU regarding administration and with Prabowo Subianto
sale but also because they did not really the latter, it is likely that Indonesia will as the current Indonesian Defence Minister,
expect the US is willing to offer the most only be able to acquire less than half of Indonesia has chosen France as one of its
advanced F-15E variant to Indonesia. the approved numbers at most. main defence equipment suppliers. As
such, it can at least be expected that the
For the past two decades, Indonesia has funding for most - if not all - of the signed
been trying to reduce its dependency on Strong Partnership contracts will be more seriously allocated
Western countries regarding defence pro- if not prioritized.
curement. Especially for TNI-AU, this has The signing of a contract with France in
resulted in the acquisition of Russian-made February 2022 to acquire the first six air- Emerging Defence Partner
Su-27/Su-30 multirole fighters which have craft - with the funding for 12 more that was
become the service’s most capable and just recently allocated - of the agreed 42 Turkey is a relative newcomer in the
best-performing fighter aircraft type. The Rafale F3 jet fighters signaled that this time, Indonesian defence procurement scene.
TNI-AU even had the plan to acquire eleven the French are coming back with force. Nevertheless, it made its presence truly
Su-35 to further build and strengthen its TNI-AU can now expect the delivery of the felt when it was first revealed in 2015 that
main combat aircraft, consisting of a mix first two batches consisting of 18 Rafale both countries are jointly developing a new
between US-made F-16s and Russian-made jet fighters to be realized starting in 2026. “Modern Medium Weight Tank (MMWT)”.
Su-27/30/35 jets. Although France has already been active Two years later, the first prototype of what
in the Indonesian Army (TNI-AD) procure- is now called the “Kaplan” Medium Tank
However, the risk of sanctions in the form ment program before with the delivery of 55 (Kaplan MT) in Turkey, and “Harimau” in
of the US federal law signed by Trump’s CAESAR 155mm Self-Propelled Howitzers Indonesia (both words meaning “Tiger” in
administration in 2017 has made TNI-AU (SPH) between 2012 and 2017, as well as English) was introduced in Istanbul. This
reconsider its plan and then cancel the Mistral short-range anti-aircraft missile 35-tonnes tank is mostly developed for
Su-35 contract in December 2021. This systems for both TNI-AD and TNI-AL, the the TNI-AD since it requires a new type
was likely a good decision in hindsight, recent agreements and deals are not only of “medium-weight” tank to replace its
especially after the somewhat lackluster about combat aircraft for TNI-AU but also aging AMX-13 light tanks as well as to
performance shown by the Su-35 in the include at least two Scorpene-class sub- complement and provide support for its
ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. marines, and possibly two Gowind-class ‘heavy-hitter’ of Leopard 2 MBTs.
Furthermore, the Russian invasion of corvettes for TNI-AL.
Ukraine that started in February this year At one time, it was even reported that the
also reflects badly on Russia’s global rep- It doesn’t stop there either. There were also service is looking to acquire “several hun-
utation which will undoubtedly also affect agreements and contracts signed between dreds” of this new tank, more than a total
Indonesia if the country is still insisting on related French defence companies and number of around 300 AMX-13 tanks in TNI-
the Su-35 procurement plan. their Indonesian state-owned counterparts AD’s inventory. Turkey delivered the first
for the development and manufacture of air batch of ten Kaplan/Harimau tank hulls to
Still, questions remain about how Indonesia surveillance radars, a range of large-caliber be assembled in Indonesia in March 2022.
will finance the acquisition of the F-15EX ammunition for the ground forces, as well While it was reported earlier that Indonesia
will acquire 18 of these first batches, of
which eight will be fully built and assem-
bled in Indonesia’s state-owned production
facilities, further progress has yet to be
announced in this matter.

Another project involving two countries is
the joint production of the ZAHA amphib-
ious armored troop carrier and fighting
vehicles. Also known as the “Marine
Assault Vehicle” or MAV for short, the vehi-
cle is meant to complement or replace the
US-made AAV7 used by the Indonesian
Marine Corps to support their amphibious
landing operations. As for the TNI-AU, the
recent cancelation of the domestic “Elang
Hitam” Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle
(UCAV) project, may result in the acquisi-
tion of Turkish-made, battle-proven combat
drones, especially since there had already
been some preparation taken to arm the
canceled UCAV with Turkish-made preci-
sion-guided weapons when the project was
still ongoing.

20 | NOVEMBER-03-2022 WWW.GBP.COM.SG/DAILY NEWS