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Eurojet Battle for KFX Engine Deal

22 Oktober 2015


KFX C103 serie (image : sbs, koreaarms)

Seoul is likely to make a decision about the powerplant for its planned KFX indigenous fighter aircraft in the first half of 2016.

The two engines in contention for the requirement are the General Electric F414 and the Eurojet EJ200. Both engine makers had a significant presence at this year’s Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition.

Industry observers familiar with KFX say that the engine down select will occur in the first half of next year irrespective of the controversy surrounding Seoul’s failure to obtain US export licences for four technologies deemed “core” to the development of KFX: active electronically scanned array radar, infrared search & track sensors (IRST), electro-optical targeting technology, and jamming technology.

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) issued the request for proposals (RFP) for the engine several weeks ago, and responses are due in November. KAI will examine the proposals, and South Korean officials’ analysis will include site visits the two rivals’ production facilities in Europe and the USA.

The winner stands to sell around 400 engines. Seoul plans to obtain 120 twin-engined KFX fighters, while Indonesia, a 20% partner in the programme, plans to obtain 80. South Korea eventually hopes to export the countries to other countries.

Eurojet had a large stand at the show with a full-sized mock-up of the EJ200, which powers the Eurofighter Typhoon. Eurojet chief executive Clemens Linden lists a long list of attributes for his company’s powerplant including modularity, a development roadmap, and technology transfer. Eurojet also highlighted maintainability, durability, and reliability.

The European firm also highlighted the experience of Eurojet consortium partner Rolls-Royce in South Korea, with over 400 engines serving in the country’s air force, navy, and army.



General Electric vice president for the F404, F414, J85, and TF34 programmes Alan DiLibero highlighted GE’s 35 year history of working with South Korean fighters. He also discussed GE’s long experience producing engines under licence with Samsung Techwin, which was recently acquired by Hanwha Techwin.

DiLibero also stressed the development roadmap for the F414, which powers the US Navy’s Boeing F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet, and GE’s successful work on a number of international programmes. GE’s international collaboration efforts have seen it involved with the Hindustan Aeronautics Tejas, which is powered by the F404, and the Saab Gripen, which powered by the RM12, a Swedish-produced version of the F414.

The F404 also powers all variants of KAI’s T-50 advanced jet trainer. DeLibero pointed out that GE recently won a supplier recognition award from KAI.
"We know how to do the integration, and I think the T-50 programme is a great example of our ability to execute, and our commitment,” says DeLibero.

(FlightGlobal)
 
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Reschedule N219 roll out plan to 10 November 2015, info di thread Formil Kaskus
 
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Poll finds TNI more popular than KPK

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The Indonesian Military (TNI), one of the country’s most reformed institutions that now focuses only on defense affairs, has gained the most public trust and respect, defeating media darling the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), a public opinion poll released on Sunday showed.

readmore: Poll finds TNI more popular than KPK | The Jakarta Post
 
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Australia Urges US to Caution Indonesia During Jokowi Visit
Foreign minister says visit an opportunity for Washington to address Jokowi’s foreign policy directly with him.

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By Prashanth Parameswaran
October 16, 2015
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The United States should use the upcoming visit of Indonesian president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to impress upon his administration the benefits of liberal democratic values and engaging the world, Australia’s foreign minister told an audience in Washington, D.C. Wednesday.

Since Jokowi’s inauguration last October, some critics have suggested that his foreign policy has been too inward-looking and nationalistic (See: “Is Indonesia Turning Away from ASEAN Under Jokowi?”). Earlier this year, Indonesia’s relationship with its neighbor Australia had been rocked by controversies over asylum seekers and the execution of Australian drug traffickers, which led Canberra to withdraw its ambassador from Jakarta for several weeks.

Responding to a question on Jokowi’s upcoming U.S. visit later this month following a speech at a D.C.-based think tank, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop took aim at Jokowi’s foreign policy and suggested that the visit would provide an opportunity for Washington to discuss this directly with him.

“President Widodo’s focus has been unapologetically domestic, but there have been some instances of more nationalistic behavior or more protectionist behavior by the administration than perhaps we had expected,” Bishop said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“So here is an opportunity for the United States to impress upon President Widodo the benefits of open, liberal, democratic values and engaging the global order.”

Bishop also reiterated Australia’s concern about the threat posed by the release of hundreds of convicted terrorists from Indonesia, which she also expressed last month in a U.S.-hosted counterterrorism forum on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. She said she expected that the United States would use the visit to boost engagement with Indonesia in the ongoing fight against the Islamic State.

“I’m assuming that the United States will use the opportunity of Widodo’s visit to talk about what more we can do to engage Indonesia in the coalition against terrorism,” she said.

Bishop said that Indonesia, being a moderate Muslim democracy, could play a positive role in countering the narrative of Islamic extremism, and that she was heartened by recent comments by her counterpart Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi on the subject. Bishop’s meeting with Marsudi on the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Malaysia in August – the first engagement at that level since Canberra withdrew its ambassador – had helped ease tensions.

“We need to work together on the rehabilitation of people convicted of terrorism-related offenses just as we need to work closely with Indonesia on countering terrorism in all its forms in our part of the world,” she said. “We hope that the United States will be able to engage Indonesia in all these areas as we have sought to do.”

Bishop’s address to CSIS came after her attendance at the Australia-United States Ministerial (AUSMIN) consultations in Boston on October 13. The joint statement included a paragraph about Indonesia, recognizing its significant regional role in addressing security challenges including the fight against the Islamic State.

“Acknowledging Indonesia’s important regional role, both countries intend to continue to work with the administration of President Joko Widodo to address regional security challenges, including countering terrorism and countering violent extremism,” the statement read.
Australia Urges US to Caution Indonesia During Jokowi Visit | The Diplomat

Exclusive: US, Indonesia to Strengthen Partnership During Jokowi Visit
A sneak preview of what we can expect to come out of a much-anticipated trip.

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By Prashanth Parameswaran
October 20, 2015
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From October 25 to 28, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo of Indonesia – the world’s fourth largest nation, third-largest democracy, and largest Muslim-majority country – will visit the United States for the first time since his inauguration last year. What can we expect in U.S.-Indonesia relations during his trip?

Sources close to preparations for the visit told The Diplomat that the focus will be on strengthening the structural foundation of the existing U.S.-Indonesia comprehensive partnership; deepening defense and economic cooperation; and shaping the narrative of Indonesia in the United States.

Strengthening the Comprehensive Partnership

The first priority will be strengthening the U.S.-Indonesia comprehensive partnership, the framework that has governed the bilateral relationship since it was inked in 2010 under Jokowi’s predecessor Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. In the wake of the arrival of the Jokowi administration in Jakarta in 2014 as well as the changing regional and global environment, both sides believe there needs to be an ‘update’ of sorts to reflect these significant changes.

“We see the need to enhance and elevate the relationship,” a source involved in preparations for the visit toldThe Diplomat. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because planning for the visit was still being finalized, said the object would be to fashion “the next stage” of the comprehensive partnership.

The joint statement issued by both sides will reflect a range of bilateral, regional and global priorities as is usually the case. But sources told The Diplomat that two additional items would be at play. The first would be the inclusion of a new strategic dialogue between the two countries. The structure of that strategic dialogue, The Diplomat understands, would be a 2+2 format, with the inclusion of a foreign minister and another minister. While the other minister in such 2+2s usually has the defense portfolio, if left unspecified this could also provide flexibility as it would allow for rotational portfolios depending on issues of significance.

The second would be the setting up of a “Track II” or non-government track in U.S.-Indonesia relations, something which Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi had mentioned in her address to the U.S.-Indonesia Society back in May which I covered for The Diplomat (See: “Indonesia Defends Its Foreign Policy Record Under Jokowi”). Here, the focus will be on broadening out the relationship of the two democracies to include greater input from the business community, civil society as well as the academic community.

Deepening Economic and Defense Cooperation

Aside from strengthening the foundation – or the ‘bones’ – of the comprehensive partnership, both sides will also try to flesh it out a little more by boosting cooperation in several areas. While Marsudi had highlighted five areas for greater U.S.-Indonesia cooperation – trade and investment, maritime issues, security and defense, education, and democracy and pluralism – significant developments are expected in the economic and defense domains.

On defense, sources said that two key deliverables would be a new joint statement on defense as well as a memorandum of understanding on maritime cooperation. While Washington and Jakarta have already been cooperating on defense issues – including under the security working group of the U.S.-Indonesia comprehensive partnership –both sides have been signaling the need to both elevate bilateral defense cooperation as well as include newer areas for more substantive cooperation.

A new joint statement on defense cooperation will have that objective in mind. The statement is expected to cover six areas – maritime cooperation, military professionalization, joint development, transnational challenges, disaster relief and peacekeeping operations.

The second deliverable is a separate MoU on maritime cooperation. This is a nod to the importance both countries are placing on the maritime domain – a reflection not only of the growing significance of this area within the Asian security landscape but also Jokowi’s own maritime vision which sees Indonesia as a ‘global maritime fulcrum’ between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, something we have covered extensively here at The Diplomat.

The MoU is expected to touch on several areas including maritime defense, maritime resource management and maritime infrastructure. A highlight will be a plan for greater coast guard cooperation with Indonesia’s Maritime Security Agency (Badan Keamanan Laut, BAKAMLA), a newly created organization under Jokowi. As I have written elsewhere, BAKAMLA is central to resolving the coordination problem that has characterized Indonesia’s maritime efforts (See: “Indonesia’s Maritime Ambition: Can Jokowi Realize It?”).

On economics, the focus will be around boosting business cooperation as well as collaboration on innovation, information technology and the creative economy. In addition to the inking deals worth around $20 billion, Jokowi will visit Silicon Valley on his trip, meeting with key U.S. companies like Apple and Google. The focus here will not only be on existing firms operating there, but the potentially growing involvement of Indonesian companies there as well.

Shaping the Narrative of Indonesia in the United States

In addition to strengthening the foundation of the U.S.-Indonesia comprehensive partnership and deepening cooperation, Jokowi will also look to shape the narrative of Indonesia in the United States. Despite Indonesia’s geopolitical heft, knowledge of the country is still quite limited, even in Washington, D.C beyond a small circle of analysts and observers.

There are also still lingering concerns in some quarters about Jokowi’s foreign policy being overly inward-looking, self-interested, and – in some cases, pro-China (See: “Is Indonesia Turning Away From ASEAN Under Jokowi?”). Indeed, as I reported last week, Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop had suggested that Jokowi’s visit could provide an opportunity for Washington to raise some of the concerns about nationalistic and protectionist behavior directly with him (See: “Australia Urges US to Caution Indonesia During Jokowi Visit”).

The Indonesian government has been working hard to try to counter these perceptions. Indeed, as I noted before, around half of Marsudi’s USINDO’s speech was devoted to tackling this criticism. In that vein, Jokowi is expected to not only privately reassure his interlocutors that this is not the case, but will deliver a public address in Washington, D.C. that touches on this subject as well. The speech will not only rebut criticisms about Indonesia’s ‘narrow nationalism’, but will touch on Indonesia’s role in addressing challenges like radicalization, climate change and global economic governance.

The overall narrative that will be stressed during the visit, a source told The Diplomat, is one of continuity in Indonesia’s traditionally free and active (bebas-aktif) foreign policy rather than a turn inwards or a shift to other countries or regions of the world.
Exclusive: US, Indonesia to Strengthen Partnership During Jokowi Visit | The Diplomat
 
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