INDONESIAN MODERNISATION PLANS AND CAPABILITIES
Since 2008, the Indonesian government’s ambition has been to create what it terms “Minimum Essential Forces” by 2024. The idea is to equip the Indonesian Armed Forces (Tentara Nasional Indonesia - TNI), with capabilities essential for dealing with anticipated conventional threats, while positioning its current forces against actual threats. To this end, the MoD is to gradually transform the current force structure into one capable of integrated tri-service operations under regional defence commands. MT takes a look at the archipelago nation.
With around 252 million people, Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country and the largest in SE Asia. It also has the world's 16th largest economy, which is expected to be the seventh largest by 2030, with a GDP that grew by an annual average of 5.35% between 2000 and 2016, a strong manufacturing sector that makes a major contribution to its GDP and a middle class larger than entire population of Australia or Malaysia. These are vital ingredients of a major regional military power, albeit one that has yet to achieve its potential. In part, this can be put down to the need to forge a nation from a diverse population – 742 languages are spoken – spread over an extensive archipelago of 18,307 islands, while maintaining internal stability and building the economy, but western arms embargoes stemming from human rights violations in East Timor also played their part.
In his introduction to the the latest defence white paper published last November, Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryachudu, highlighted the country's geographical position between the southern coast of the Eurasian land mass to the north west and Australia to the south, and close to the land and maritime borders of 10 countries – one of these borders being the vital Strait of Malacca – and went on to reiterate Indonesia's ambition to become the so called Global Maritime Fulcrum.
POSITIONING CURRENT FORCES AGAINST ACTUAL THREATS
During his 2014 election campaign, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo pledged to raise the defence budget from a figure of around U$7.2 billion at the time to $20 billion in 2019. Increases to date have been more modest. Defence’s share of GDP stood at about 1.1% when on 23 February Jokowi said he would put as much as 1.5% of GDP into the defence budget if growth were to exceed 6% during the year, the Jakarta Post reported. The country’s GDP was $861.93 billion in 2015, down from a high of $917.87 billion in 2012.
Numbers for the first quarter of this year released by Statistics Indonesia on 04 May show growth of 4.92 percent. Although that clearly does not meet Jokowi's threshold, the Indonesian House of Representatives Defence Commission agreed to increase the 2016 budget to IDR108.7 trillion ($8.28 billion).
The defence white paper put the projected defence budget above 1% of GDP and said that a gradual increase could be expected over the next decade.
The Indonesian government also has a long term plan to reduce dependence on foreign suppliers, which gained legal force from Defence Law number 16 of 2012, which embodies a commitment to develop Indonesia’s defence industrial base.
PRIORITY PROCUREMENT PROGRAMMES
In this vein, priority programmes highlighted in the current white paper include submarine construction and propulsion system development, jet fighters, national radars, rockets and missiles, medium tanks and, finally, warship exports. Procurement policy is to buy Indonesian-built equipment where possible, to encourage foreign suppliers to partner with local companies and to ensure technology transfer (ToT).
Underpinned by Law 16, Indonesia's long-term plan to develop its high-technology defence industry features a cooperation branch that involves licence production, joint production, modernisation of engineering and manufacturing tools and joint development projects, along with new research and prototyping facilities.
Today, state-owned firms represent the backbone of the country's defence manufacturing capability, with PT PAL (Penataran Angkatan Laut) the dominant shipbuilder, PT DI (Dirgantara Indonesia) in aerospace, and PT PINDAD (Perindustrian Angkatan Darat) making land forces equipment from small arms to armoured vehicles.
Equipped with submarines, frigates, corvettes, fast attack craft, patrol vessels, MCM ships, amphibians, a hospital ship, hydrographic survey vessels and training ships, the TNI AL has about 150 active vessels and is growing. The number planned under the MEF to be in service by 2024 is a minimum of 151, although with many more modern than today’s, 220 as the standard figure or 274 as the ideal.
DSME LAUNCHES INDONESIA'S FIRST CHANG BOGO SUB
Indonesia currently operates two TKMS Type 209 submarines, CAKRA and NANGGALA, with three South Korean CHANG BOGO boats on order. NAGABANDA, TRUISULA, and NAGARANSANG represent an improved Type 209 design already in service with the Republic of Korea Navy. The first two are to be built by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) in Korea and the third by PT PAL.
On 25 March, Indonesia's Antara news agency reported the launch of the first boat, with the hull number H 7712 at DSME's Okpo Shipyard, South Korea. As part of the ToT process, the boat was constructed under the supervision of Indonesia’s task force on submarine procurement with participation by 113 engineers from PT PAL, who are also studying the construction and development of submarines independently through an apprenticeship scheme.
Indonesia's established diversity of sourcing for major items of military equipment looks set to continue, as the country is reportedly negotiating with both Russia and France.
One potential deal involves the purchase of two Project 636 VARSHAVYANKA (NATO KILO) diesel electric submarines from Russia, along with Beriev Be-200ChS jet flying boats the TASS news agency reported on 30 May, quoting Indonesian Ambassador to Moscow Mohamad Wahid Supriyadi. “
We really plan to purchase amphibious planes developed by the Sukhoi design bureau and KILO-class submarines from Russia,” he is reported as saying.
This follows a defence cooperation deal signed in Moscow a few days earlier by Jokowi and Vladimir Putin. Indonesia has similar bilateral deals with many countries.
The second set of submarine related activities came to light in April with reports that a joint working group with France with France had been formed to discuss the TNI AL’s future deep water and littoral requirements. The working group reportedly involves both government and industry level contacts, the latter between DCNS and PT PAL.
Crew of the new Philippine Navy Strategic Sealift Vessel BRP TARLAC (LD601) rush to board their vessel during the commissioning ceremony with three other vessels to coincide with the Philippine Navy's 118th anniversary on 1 June 2016 at South Harbor in Manila, Philippines. The 7,200t ship is the country's largest to date and is capable of transporting personnel, equipment and aid during humanitarian assistance and disaster response operations.
PKR1 TAKES TO THE WATER
On 18 January, Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding reported that its partner PT PAL had launched the first of two 2,365t PERUSAK KAWAL RUDAL (PKR) guided-missile frigates for the TNI AL. The ships represent a variant of Damen’s SIGMA (Ship Integrated Geometrical Modularity Approach) 10514 design and are intended primarily for anti-air, anti-surface, and anti-submarine warfare but will also be capable of taking on search and rescue, patrol and humanitarian support roles.
SIGMA is a design approach intended to promote flexibility, cost-effectiveness efficient construction of modules on different sites and effective technology transfer, says Damen. For example, the PKRs are divided into six modules, four of which were built in PT PAL’s shipyards while the other two were built and tested at Damen’s facilities in the Netherlands.
The project was initiated in 2010 and the contract for the first ship was awarded to Damen for first ship in December of that year, says the company, with first steel cut in January 2014, the keel laid that April at PT PAL's yard in Surabaya. The ToT effort involved more than 300 personnel from PT PAL, training of shipyard workers and improved shipyard infrastructure.
US and Indonesian Navies Enhance Maritime Partnerships, Advance Training Objectives during CARAT
The US and Indonesian Navies came together for the 22nd Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Indonesia bilateral exercise and exchange, 3-8 August 2016; taking place on the ground in Surabaya and in the waters and airspace of the Java and Bali Seas.
More than 500 US sailors participated in CARAT Indonesia alongside their counterparts from the Indonesian Navy (TNI-AL). The exercise featured complex at-sea training in surface and anti-submarine warfare, visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) drills, mobile dive and salvage training, a gunnery exercise, maritime patrol operations, and exchanges between EOD technicians.
Additionally, personnel from both nations exchanged best practices on naval tactics during a series of military seminars ashore. Numerous civil action projects, aviation seminars, sports exchanges, military law, and submarine warfare symposia were also conducted during the shore phase of the exercise. The US 7th Fleet band, Orient Express, also conducted numerous cultural outreach engagements with the TNI-AL Eastern Fleet band for local citizens of Surabaya.
US units participating in the exercise included the ARLEIGH BURKE-class guided-missile destroyer USS SPRUANCE (DDG 111), a LOS ANGELES-class submarine, the rescue and salvage ship USNS SALVOR (T-ARS 52) with an embarked Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit (MDSU), the Expeditionary Fast Transport ship USNS MILLINOCKET (EPF-1), the Expeditionary Transfer Dock USNS MONTFORD POINT (T-ESD-1), a P-8A POSEIDON from Patrol Squadron (VP) 8, and civil engineers and technicians from Navy Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) FIVE and Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) FIVE.
Indonesia has been part of the CARAT exercise series since it began in 1995. After more than two decades of annual training events between the armed forces, CARAT Indonesia remains a model for cooperation that has evolved in complexity and enables both navies to refine operations and tactics in response to both traditional and non-traditional maritime security challenges.
CARAT Indonesia is part of a broader bilateral exercise series the US Navy conducts with nine partner navies in South and SE Asia to address shared maritime security priorities, strengthen maritime partnerships and enhance interoperability among participating forces.
Ships from the US and Royal Thai Navies break formation following the completion of a manoeuvring exercise at sea. (Photo: US Navy)
FIRST WARSHIP EXPORT
The handover ceremony for the BRP TARLAC (LD 601) to the Philippine Navy on 8 May marked Indonesia’s first warship export. The Strategic Sealift Vessel (SSV) is the first of two ordered by the neighbouring country. Based on the Indonesian Navy's MAKASSAR-class Landing Platform Dock (LPD) designed by DSME in South Korea, TARLAC was laid down on 22 January 2015 and launched a few days less than a year later on 18 January this year.
She arrived Manila on 16 May and commissioned on 1 June, 496 days after she was laid down.
This timescale indicates that PT PAL has passed the steepest part of its learning curve and has likely overcome the problems that stretched out construction of the second pair of Makassar class vessels that the company built for the TNI AL, the first two having been built in South Korea. KRI BANJARMASIN was laid down 19 Oct 2006 and commissioned 28 November 2009, a substantial 1,136 days later, while KRI BANDAR ACEH was laid down 7 December 2007 and commissioned on 21 March 2011, a build lasting 1,200 days; so 496 days for BRP TARLAC is a major improvement, although the company has some way to go to match DSME, though, as KRI SURABAYA, the second ship of the MAKASSAR-class, was laid down 7 December 2006 and commissioned just 237 days later on 1 August 2007.
A second vessel, as yet unnamed but with the pennant number LD 602, is under construction and expected to commission next year.
FIGHTER PROCUREMENT
The Indonesian Air Force (TNI AU) operates a small and somewhat eclectic fleet of US and Russian supersonic fighters generally considered inadequate to cover a vast territory. The country is in the market for more, with 180 wanted under the MEF (Minimum Essential Force) requirement; a target that is likely to be missed although some analysts believe 150 by 2025 is achievable. Perhaps more than any other capability, the fighter fleet has been a political football.
Recently modernised and expanded, the F-16 fleet has become the backbone of the TNI AL’s fast jet force, with further firepower enhancements likely thanks to a number of guided weapons recently cleared for sale to Indonesia by the US State Department. However, Sukhoi got a firm foothold in 1997 during the western embargo.
The single-seat Su-35S, which in some ways is more advanced than the Su-30SM, will focus much more on the air superiority role. The Su-35S likely represents the ultimate incarnation of the venerable FLANKER airframe design. The jet has been upgraded with a powerful IRBIS-E passive electronically scanned radar (PESA), new EO/IR scanners, data-links, a host of other upgrades and a vast arsenal of weapons. The Su-35 also features a lighter airframe combined a pair of upgraded AL-41F1S engines with three-dimensional thrust vectoring, which affords it excellent aerodynamic performance.
The first F16s were delivered nearly three decades ago in December 1989 following an order placed in 1986 for 12 F16A/B Block 15 Operational Capability Upgrade (OCU) standard aircraft, eight being single-seat A models and four two-seat Bs, under the Peace Bima-Sena I programme. Nine more Block 15 F16As were ordered in March 1996, but then President Soeharto cancelled in June 1997, annoyed by the US reaction to human rights violations in East Timor, and an order for 12 Su-30Ks was announced August of that year.
The first two Su-27s and two Su-30s were delivered in 2003. These were followed by three Su-27s and three Su-30s ordered in 2007, with the Su-30s delivered in 2008 and the Su-27s in 2009. More deliveries were reported in in 2010, followed by the last batch of two Su-30MK2s reported in September 2013, bringing the total to 16.
With the warming of Indonesian-US relations after the end of the embargo in 2005 came more F-16 orders, which the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) flagged up in November 2011 after Indonesia requested a sale for regeneration and upgrade of 24 F-16C/Ds and 28 engines as “excess defense articles.” As a result, 19 single-seat F16C Block 25 and 5 two-seat F16D Block 25 were delivered in 2014/15 under Peace Bima-Sena II, upgraded to Block 52ID specification.
On 3 September 2015, Indonesia reportedly selected the Sukhoi Su-35 as a replacement for its ageing fleet of 10 single-seat Northrop F-5Es and two F-5F two seaters. A contract for 8/10 aircraft was due to be signed in May, an intention that DefMin Ryachudu confirmed in early April ahead of a planned visit to Russia in May, however no signature has yet been reported. Projected procurement numbers have also changed radically, with an initial rumour of 150 dropping to 16 by September 2015 and eight to 10 in 2016. The first Su-35s are likely to arrive in 2018 at the earliest.
This uncertainty has kept the competition's hopes up with Saab offering the JAS 39 GRIPEN in February according to a 27 June report from the Antara news agency, citing head of Saab Indonesia Peter Carlqvist.
All variants are reportedly on offer including the GRIPEN A/B, C/D and GRIPEN NG E/F with around 16 aircraft sought, six of which could be built in Indonesia. Around 1,000 Indonesians could be involved in building all the aircraft locally and in Sweden as part of a transfer of technology and expertise.
KFX/IFX
Finally, the partnership with Korea on the “4.5 generation” KFX/IFX fighter programme seems to have taken a step forward in the light of a recent statement from PT Dirgantara boss Budi Santoso, who told Antara on 11 February that it will begin building the new jet within four years: “
We will begin producing them in 2020 and continue for the next 20 years.”
KFX/IFX wind tunnel tests.
Following an initial agreement to cooperate reached in 2010, an a contract covering prototype construction in South Korea was signed in January between Indonesia’s MoD, South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), PT Dirgantara, and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI). Work is due to begin this year with completion expected in 2019.
TNI UA reportedly needs two squadrons, and the type is also to be exported from Indonesia. The funding commitment is estimated a U$8.3 billion and is to be split 80/20 between Korea and Indonesia, with an anticipated production run of 150 to 200 units, of which 50 are earmarked for Indonesia. However, respective figures of 120 and 80 have also been reported.
While the prototypes are to be built in South Korea, plans call for the rest of the TNI AL’s machines to be built locally and around 300 Indonesian personnel are set to “study and research” their production.
KAI and Lockheed Martin beat Korean Air and Airbus Defence at the end of March 2015 in the competition to design the aircraft, which is intended to have a combat radius 50% larger than that of the F-16 along with stealth design features.
The programme suffered a setback in September 2015 when the US government has blocked transfer of four key technologies, namely AESA radar, electro-optical targeting pods, IR Search and Track (IRST), and RF jamming equipment.
On 16 June came confirmation that South Korea has begun making alternative arrangements when Hanhwa Thales announced that the company had been chosen by the country’s Agency for Defence Development (ADD) to develop an AESA for the aircraft. The company intends to build the first prototype by June of next year, with a second to follow if it works as expected.
MULTI-ROLE UTILITY AIRCRAFT AND UAVS
The aerospace industry is long-established and PT Dirgantara has significant strength in licence building and co-production of Airbus and Bell helicopters and both cooperative and indigenous development of turboprop utility aircraft, airliners, and military transport and patrol aircraft derived from the CN235. The company also making parts for Airbus airliners and is building experience with UAVs.
New aircraft with military potential include the NC212i, which is latest incarnation of the Casa C212 utility transport and patrol aircraft family, the smaller N219 under development as a replacement for the venerable de Havilland Canada Twin OTTER, which it closely resembles. The company is also working on a further development of the CN235 in the form of a commercial feeder liner known as the CN245, which could spawn military variants of its own.
PT Dirgantara Indonesia is now ready for mass production of WULUNG UAV after getting (military) certification from Military Airworthiness Authority (MAA) on April 2016.
The WULUNG ISR UAV achieved a significant milestone with its certification by the Indonesian Military Airworthiness Authority, which PT Dirgantara announced on 26 April.
Jointly developed to meet an TNI AU requirement by the company, BPPT (the agency for the assessment and application of technology), and the MoD, WULUNG uses modular construction from composite materials. The UAV offers 2-3 hours endurance and a 100 km mission radius, limited by data link range, and a cruising altitude of 5,500 ft. Equipped to capture high definition stills and video imagery, the current EO surveillance equipment limits its useful operating altitude to 3,000 to 4,000 ft.
With production due to begin in early May, three systems are scheduled for delivery to MoD. A new WULUNG can be ready to fly within six weeks of placing an order, says the company, including three weeks to produce the structure and one or two weeks for integration and testing.
TANKS, HEAVY AND MEDIUM
The Indonesian Army (TNI AD) took delivery of the first eight of 61 LEOPARD 2A4 MBTs in May 2016. Upgraded by Rheinmetall to REVOLUTION urban warfare standard, they are part of an order totalling 103 MBTs designated LEOPARD 2RI fitted, for example, with bustle-mounted air conditioning.
The Indonesian Army took delivery of the first eight of 61 LEOPARD 2A4 MBTs in May 2016, which were upgraded by Rheinmetall to REVOLUTION urban warfare standard.
Other armoured vehicles from surplus German stocks have already been delivered, including 42 upgraded MARDER 1A3 IFVs along with 10 armoured recovery, mobile bridge and engineering vehicles. The deal also includes technology transfer to PT PINDAD.
Since 2014, the company has been working with Turkey's FNSS on a medium tank of 25-30t – with the lower figure preferred – as a replacement for the older AMX-13s and SCORPIONs. Armed with a 105mm gun, the chassis is intended to be capable of supporting an upgrade to a 120mm weapon. Two prototypes are to be built, one in Indonesia, one in Turkey, with the first expected to be revealed to the public in 2017.
PT PINDAD has recent experience in developing armoured vehicles, notably the 6x6 ANOA, which has a combat weight of 14t and can carry three crew and 10 troops. Production began in 2008 and continues, with more than 220 delivered so far. The company has also developed a fire support version known as the BADAK and equipped with a new all-welded hull and a CMI Defence CSE 90LP turret armed with a low-pressure 90mm gun.
With economic growth that most western countries can only envy, Indonesia looks set to achieve the military forces it believes it needs, if politics permit.
Peter Donaldson
http://monch.com/mpg/news/15-maritime/145-indonesian-modernisation-plans-and-capabilities.html
