TNI fast track to more firepower

The Indonesian Military (TNI) is set for an aggressive upgrade to its worn-out firepower next year as the United States has made a fresh offer to donate jet fighters and lawmakers are willing to swell the defense budget.

Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Wednesday that the US had offered another batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon jets, on top of the first batch of 24 fighter planes it had already agreed.

“There will be additional F-16s donated by the US after they have been upgraded, which is still underway,” he said. “Once it is complete, our [F-16] strength will increase three fold.”

Currently, Indonesia has 10 F-16A/B Block 15 fighters with operational capability upgrades (OCU) at the 3rd Squadron base, Iswahjudi Air Force Base in Madiun, East Java. Block 15 represents the oldest model while Block 60 is the most advanced.

In the first batch, Indonesia will get 25 F-16 C/D 24 Block jet fighters upgraded to Block 32 standard. Another six F-16s will be used for spare parts and components.

Purnomo declined to reveal the number of F-16s in the second batch, saying it would go against the military code of ethics to give an exact number. However, secretary-general Vice Marshal Eris Herryanto said the next batch “would be sufficient to form another squadron”.

“I returned on Sunday from a visit to the US. We still have to discuss the offer internally before we decide whether to take it up or not.”

A squadron consists of somewhere between 12 and 24 aircraft.

Other users of F-16s in the region are Singapore and Thailand. Singapore has 74 F-16 C/D Block 52/52+ in three squadrons and an overseas training detachment, while Thailand has 36 F-16 Block 15 OCU in two squadrons and another squadron with 18 F-16 Air Defense Fighter (ADF). South Korea and Taiwan also operate F-16s.

The decision to accept the donated F-16s has been widely criticized.

Ravi Kumar Madavaram, aerospace and defense consultant with Frost & Sullivan, said the difference between Block 32++ and 52+ or E/F 60 was in terms of avionics, additional fuel tanks, missile types, accessibility and performance enhancements. “There is no significant variance in the utility provided by F-16 Falcons of the 32++ or 52+ variety,” he said in an email.

“Excess defense aircraft donated by the US is quite cost effective. But the effectiveness can only be understood in the finer details of the deal.”

In a separate interview, Eris said that the Air Force’s defense and deterrence capabilities, taking account of the additional F-16 and Sukhoi Su-27/30, would be sufficient for the next 15 to 20 years.

“Then we’ll receive another boost from the in-development KFX/IFX figher jets, which will be jointly produced with South Korea,” he said.

Purnomo reiterated the plan to buy six C-130H Hercules heavy transporters being decommissioned by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) at a cost of US$15 million each, on top of four aircraft being donated by RAAF.

Meanwhile, Navy chief of staff Vice Adm. Marsetio said the service was still selecting candidates for 11 anti-submarine warfare helicopters.

“One of the candidates is the [US-made] Super Seasprite,” he said.

Indonesia is also due to produce locally around eight more corvettes for the Navy to add to the existing four, in cooperation with Dutch shipbuilder Damen Schelde.

Separately, chairman of the House of Representatives’ defense commission Mahfudz Siddiq said the commission had given a green light for a rise of up to Rp 10 trillion ($1.06 billion) on top of the Rp 76.5 trillion already allocated in the 2013 state budget.

“We need a flexible defense budget as we are concerned by the poor condition of weapons systems,” he said.

  ♞ Jakarta Post