Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE
INDONESIA is planning the procurement of over $2 billion worth of military equipment over the next five years, including more fighter and trainer aircraft, helicopters, missiles and radar.
The future purchases are contained in the country's 1994-9 strategic plan, which is subject to annual budget allocations and presidential approval. The Indonesian air force is the single largest purchaser of the three services, with eight programmes collectively valued at over $1.74 billion.
Topping the list is a planned follow-on purchase of 20 more British Aerospace Hawk 100/200s, for which $676 million has been pencilled in for fiscal year 1996/7. Bae in 1993, sold Indonesia 16 Hawk 200 single-seat, light strike aircraft and eight -100 tandem-seat trainers.
Indonesia also requires a further five Lockheed F-16A/Bs to supplement its 11 Block 15 F-16s which have been in service since 1989. The military have provisionally set aside $116.5 million in fiscal year 1998/9 for the aircraft.
To support its new fighter and strike aircraft, the air force hopes to fund the $60 million acquisition of two new in-flight-refueling tankers in the 1998/9 budget. The aircraft are needed to replace the air force's two elderly Lockheed KC-130B tankers.
The five-year plan includes a $425 million provision in the 1995/6 budget to buy 16 Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopters and 16 smaller training machines in 1998/9. The Black Hawk purchase, however, is likely to slip, as formal negotiations have yet to begin with the manufacturer, say defence sources.
Indonesia plans to improve and extend the coverage of its air-defence system to the eastern end of the archipelago, with the purchase of a new $25 million ground-control-intercept radar. Existing radar suppliers to Indonesia, Thomson-CSF and Siemens Plessey are among the companies competing for the contract.
Two new surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems are also included in the plan. The military hopes to secure a total of $104 million to buy four batteries of medium- to high-altitude air-defence missiles in 1996/7 and 1997/8. Indonesian interest is thought to centre on the Raytheon Improved Hawk SAM.
A short-range shoulder-launched SAM is also required to go with Indonesia's BAe Rapier system. An $84 million outlay on four batteries of missiles is included in the 1997/8 and 1998/9 estimates.
Source: Flight International
