Well, Indonesia is a non block country who don't follow the West or East since the cold war era. But at the time of Soeharto, we lean to the west. So we have a lot of old Western weapons that we bought or procure from the United States from the start of Soeharto raise of power.
But around the '90 we got an arm embargo from the West because of East Timor, and at the end of Soeharto era, we lost East Timor. At that time, Australia support East Timor and sent their army to the island, and then secure the referendum with the result of East Timor left our country. Even today Australia still has a hidden agenda to support Papua independent. But right now, they put aside their agenda because they want to use Indonesia as their meat shield against China.
Beside that we have a rival at our northern border. It's Malaysia. We have some islands and border that contested with them.
And at the end, we have suspicious to China because of their 9 dash line, and how we have an incident with their coast guard at Natuna, when their stupid fisherman came to Natuna to stole our fish, and their coast guard interfere, and their government claim that Natuna water was just their traditional fishing spot. A not wise diplomatic action by China.
So basically we are a neutral country that positioned at the middle of the rivalry between China and the west. We can become the gate to close China from entering the Indian Ocean if they become hostile to us, but we can also become the guarantee of Chinese trade route if they are good to us. At the other side, the Western countries, like US and Australia want us to join their club to complete Obama grand ambition that we called as China pivot. If China become crazy and want to sink Aussie, they hope that our 200 millions people can become the frontline Soldiers to fights against China.
But if we talk about aircraft, we have our criteria. First, our territory is vast. But most of them are water. So we need an aircraft that capable to operate at long range, and we need an aircraft that can be used on a maritime mission. Like attacking a surface ships with AShM.
To be honest, I think Flanker fit to this mission criteria perfectly. But we still have to keep our relation with the west. So F-16 is also a good choice.
