Indonesia Navy Limitations Exposed in AirAsia Plane Search

Indonesia’s hunt for the wreckage of a downed AirAsia Bhd (AIRA) jet is exposing the constraints on its navy as President Joko Widodo seeks to transform his nation into a major maritime power. Widodo, the former Jakarta governor known as Jokowi who took office in October, has likened himself to a “captain trusted by the people.” He’s laid out an ambitious vision that spans the development of the fishing industry, improved port infrastructure, stronger sea defenses and better diplomacy as it deals with illegal fishing, territorial disputes and piracy.

Key to that plan is modernizing and expanding a navy that patrols the waters of the world’s biggest archipelago, a string of more than 17,000 islands that would stretch almost from New York to London. Indonesia has long focused the bulk of its defense spending on ground forces as it dealt with internal security threats, leaving the navy short of ships, manpower and technology.

“There has been a general recognition that Indonesia’s navy has for a long time been inadequate for an archipelago as sprawling as Indonesia,” said Ken Conboy, country manager at RMA Indonesia, a Jakarta-based risk management firm. “These shortcomings are all the more glaring given Jokowi’s vision for Indonesia to become a greater regional maritime power.”

As it hunts for more pieces of the AirAsia plane that went down Dec. 28, including the flight data recorders, Indonesia has been quick to call on countries including the U.S., China, Russia, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia to send planes, ships, divers and high-tech equipment to assist. Indonesia has five vessels equipped with hydrophones to try to pinpoint the black box, while the USS Fort Worth is using high-frequency side-scan sonars to do the same. A ping that could be coming from the black box was detected today, Detik reported.

 Nighttime Searches 

While such a search would test the capabilities of even larger navies it has exposed some of Indonesia’s weaknesses, such as problems with nighttime and all-weather searches and a lack of equipment to conduct sophisticated aerial maritime surveillance or underwater search and salvage missions, said Collin Koh, an associate research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore who studies the modernization of Southeast Asia’s navies.

“They will have mobilized the bulk of their most sophisticated hardware, which also means that the Indonesian navy is actually pushing its capacity to its limits,” Koh said. “They have to still patrol the other areas against illegal fishing, it has to even contribute a ship to Lebanon for a peacekeeping operation,” he said. “If they have committed so much to this search, then what gives?”

 213 Ships 

Indonesian seas touch both the Pacific and Indian oceans and include parts of the South China Sea, where an increasingly assertive China is locked in territorial disputes with multiple nations and claims waters near Indonesia’s Natuna Islands. It shares maritime economic boundaries with at least 10 countries, including India and Australia, and its waters take in the Straits of Malacca, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. Indonesia’s navy has 65,000 personnel and a fleet that includes 25 corvettes, 20 fast attack craft, nine minesweepers, six frigates, five amphibious landing ships, two submarines, and a number of smaller patrol craft, said Ridzwan Rahmat, a senior reporter with IHS Jane’s Navy International in Singapore.

It has 213 ships in total, including more than 70 patrol and coastal combatants, Brian Harding, director for East and Southeast Asia at the Washington DC-based Center for American Progress, said in a World Politics Review interview published in December. “However, the sum is less than its parts, with less than half of the vessels combat ready and most not well integrated,” Harding said. “Most ships were commissioned decades ago and are in need of replacement. Command and control is extremely weak, and sustainment and logistics are underdeveloped. The overall result is that the Indonesian navy is, largely, undeployable.”

 Defense Spending 

The previous administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono put in place a Minimum Essential Force plan in 2009 that calls for an overhaul of the armed forces by 2024, including a 274-ship navy that among other improvements would feature more submarines and corvettes.

Jokowi has said he wants to boost defense spending to 1.5 percent of gross domestic product. The 2015 budget, put in place by Yudhoyono, allocates 96.8 trillion rupiah ($7.6 billion) for defense, which is 7 percent of government spending and 0.9 percent of GDP. Jokowi is in the process of revising that budget.

Ryamizard Ryacudu, Indonesia’s new defense minister, told reporters Jan. 7 that the military had adequate equipment that was all effective. He said the new Jokowi defense budget would increase this year but not by much.

 ‘Threat Level’ 

“Defense procurement will be based on the threat level,” he said. “We will not merely spend money irresponsibly. There might be some delays in procurement that we don’t need because it was not justified with the threat level. The defense procurement is not for showing off.”

Spending on equipment for the navy in Indonesia, which in the 1960s was considered a regional power, was tempered after the economic crisis of the late 1990s and the fall of former dictator Suharto in 1998, Koh said. Things started to improve and better equipment was added after Yudhoyono took office in 2004.

“I think we can see quite a bit of difference between then and now,” Koh said. “There are still shortfalls in certain areas. The Indonesian navy is a small navy by comparison with its geographical expanse. So there are some areas where the Indonesian navy cannot bridge the gap.”

 Missile Frigates 

Indonesia is due to add more modern warships in coming years, including two 105-meter (344 feet) SIGMA 10514 guided missile frigates built jointly with Dutch shipbuilder DSNS and three Chang Bogo Class diesel-electric attack submarines that will be jointly produced with South Korea, said Rahmat. Last year it added three Bung Tomo Class corvettes that have torpedo launchers.

Rather than buying high-priced items like submarines, Indonesia should focus its resources on more immediate challenges and invest in smaller patrol vessels better suited to dealing with illegal fishing, as well as manned and unmanned aerial maritime surveillance, Koh said. “The issue here is the funding and of course whether or not the government will continue to give more support,” he said, noting that truly modernizing Indonesia’s navy would require billions of dollars in investment and possibly take several decades. “Indonesia doesn’t have an enviable job.”.

  ♘ Bloomberg