Indonesia is trying to revitalise local strategic companies to be able to procure arms for the defence sector, marked by last year’s issuance of Law No. 16/2012 on the Defence Industry. The development of Indonesia’s defence industry is to have some lead integrating technologies, which are the KF-X fighter, submarine, national rocket and missile, propellant industry, and national radar. One of the most important is the KF-X fighter co-development and co-funding project with South Korea, in which Indonesia would finance 20 percent of project cost and also send engineers for project development in return of around 50 planes built for Indonesian Air Force after project completion.
Indonesia has been carrying the KF-X project under a definitive agreement with South Korea since April 2011. However, on March 2013, South Korea decided to put the project on hold for 18 months because of the recent transition of power in South Korea, as the new government needed more data to convince the Parliament about the project, since Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA) is opposing the KF-X citing the lack of a prior experience and a bleak export prospect. Proponents are still optimist of the project since Korea's KT-1 and T-50 projects, previously opposed by the think tank, went ahead anyway, so is KF-X project expected to also go ahead.
Meanwhile, in Indonesia, a member of the Parliament mentioned that the government had never clearly reported the KF-X project to the Parliament before. The House of Representatives only received reports from the statements of the Defence Ministry quoted by the mass media. The government also was accused of having never submitted the budget for the KF-X project to the House, despite thirty engineers from PT Dirgantara Indonesia had been participating in the designing of the fighter in South Korea. Therefore, Commission I of the House overseeing defence sector would soon summon TNI Commander and Defence Minister to explain the details of the problem.
These developments highlight the need of both governments to have better coordination with their respective Parliaments in the KF-X project.
Strategic Importance for Both
Despite delay to the plan, many argue that collaboration on the project will not be cancelled for it holds strategic importance for both countries. For Indonesia, KF-X fighters are needed to replace its aging combat aircrafts, which have been frequently reported to crash in different accidents, the last one happening last year when a Hawk 209 crashed in Riau on October 16. Hawk aircrafts have been serving Indonesian Air Force since 1997. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s F-16s are from Block 15 version, a variant developed in early 1980s and lacking capability compared to latest Block 30 version. Other combat aircrafts in Indonesia Air Force’s inventory are EMB 314 Super Tucanos, retired F-5Es, Su-27s, and Su-30s (two units of the last arrived earlier on February 22). The list is arguably weaker than Singapore’s F-15SGs (F-15’s latest variant) and F-16s Block 52, or Malaysia’s Su-30MKMs (Su-30’s advanced version) and F/A-18Ds.
South Korea as our collaborator meets the same challenge. They need KF-Xs as stealth fighter jets to help effectively deter North Korea. Since North Korea's artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island on November 2010, there has been a "common understanding" within the South Korean military that it should develop a stealth fighter to put significant psychological pressure on the North Korean leadership. That put aside, Japan’s F-15s and China’s J-10s, Su-30MKKs, J-11s and Su-27s are of considerable threats to South Korea’s air superiority, while Japan-China dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands may expand north to South Korea’s territory. Moreover, the new president-elect Park Geun Hye is a conservative right-winger who has promised a tough stance on national security and is pushing the development of weapons such as doubling South Korea’s ballistic missile range and expanding and exporting nuclear power plant technology.
Delay Implication for Indonesia’s Defence
KF-X deal hold will have some implication for Indonesia’s defence. In the blueprint for the development of fighter technology, the KF-X project is intended to finish mastery of the design by 2014, continued by mastery of the production in 2015-19 and new development in 2020-24. This is to support the master plan of defence industry development, which targets to accomplish Minimum Essential Forces (MEF) posture in 2014, then to build transitional MEF posture in 2019, and to achieve ideal weapons posture in 2024.
18 months hold of the project means the fulfilment of the MEF posture will be delayed until 2016, when the U.S. and European countries are predicted to exit the debt crisis, producers are ready to market the fifth generation fighters, and old generation weapons are no longer relevant with military technology dynamics. Fifth generation fighters are fighters with technological advances such as stealth, high manoeuvrability, advanced avionics, networked data fusion from sensors and avionics, and multirole capabilities. The only currently combat-ready fifth-generation fighters are the United States' F-22s and the F-35s, with Russia's PAK FAs, China's J-20s and other aircrafts currently in development. Introduction of other fifth-generation fighters are planned in 2017-27 period, and their capabilities will make current fighters obsolete.
KF-X deal hold will mean delay of fighter technology transfer until international arms market is flooded with fifth-generation fighters. The time for the development of fighter technology is now when international arms sales are decreasing, as shown in the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)'s top 100 arms-producing and military services companies in the world. In the report, arms sales in 2011 declined 5 percent from the year before to a total of US$410 billion. The best scenario is if the new Korean government can sooner convince the Parliament, while our government can conduct better coordination with the House of Representatives on the KF-X project.
Indonesia has been carrying the KF-X project under a definitive agreement with South Korea since April 2011. However, on March 2013, South Korea decided to put the project on hold for 18 months because of the recent transition of power in South Korea, as the new government needed more data to convince the Parliament about the project, since Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA) is opposing the KF-X citing the lack of a prior experience and a bleak export prospect. Proponents are still optimist of the project since Korea's KT-1 and T-50 projects, previously opposed by the think tank, went ahead anyway, so is KF-X project expected to also go ahead.
Meanwhile, in Indonesia, a member of the Parliament mentioned that the government had never clearly reported the KF-X project to the Parliament before. The House of Representatives only received reports from the statements of the Defence Ministry quoted by the mass media. The government also was accused of having never submitted the budget for the KF-X project to the House, despite thirty engineers from PT Dirgantara Indonesia had been participating in the designing of the fighter in South Korea. Therefore, Commission I of the House overseeing defence sector would soon summon TNI Commander and Defence Minister to explain the details of the problem.
These developments highlight the need of both governments to have better coordination with their respective Parliaments in the KF-X project.
Strategic Importance for Both
Despite delay to the plan, many argue that collaboration on the project will not be cancelled for it holds strategic importance for both countries. For Indonesia, KF-X fighters are needed to replace its aging combat aircrafts, which have been frequently reported to crash in different accidents, the last one happening last year when a Hawk 209 crashed in Riau on October 16. Hawk aircrafts have been serving Indonesian Air Force since 1997. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s F-16s are from Block 15 version, a variant developed in early 1980s and lacking capability compared to latest Block 30 version. Other combat aircrafts in Indonesia Air Force’s inventory are EMB 314 Super Tucanos, retired F-5Es, Su-27s, and Su-30s (two units of the last arrived earlier on February 22). The list is arguably weaker than Singapore’s F-15SGs (F-15’s latest variant) and F-16s Block 52, or Malaysia’s Su-30MKMs (Su-30’s advanced version) and F/A-18Ds.
South Korea as our collaborator meets the same challenge. They need KF-Xs as stealth fighter jets to help effectively deter North Korea. Since North Korea's artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island on November 2010, there has been a "common understanding" within the South Korean military that it should develop a stealth fighter to put significant psychological pressure on the North Korean leadership. That put aside, Japan’s F-15s and China’s J-10s, Su-30MKKs, J-11s and Su-27s are of considerable threats to South Korea’s air superiority, while Japan-China dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands may expand north to South Korea’s territory. Moreover, the new president-elect Park Geun Hye is a conservative right-winger who has promised a tough stance on national security and is pushing the development of weapons such as doubling South Korea’s ballistic missile range and expanding and exporting nuclear power plant technology.
Delay Implication for Indonesia’s Defence
KF-X deal hold will have some implication for Indonesia’s defence. In the blueprint for the development of fighter technology, the KF-X project is intended to finish mastery of the design by 2014, continued by mastery of the production in 2015-19 and new development in 2020-24. This is to support the master plan of defence industry development, which targets to accomplish Minimum Essential Forces (MEF) posture in 2014, then to build transitional MEF posture in 2019, and to achieve ideal weapons posture in 2024.
18 months hold of the project means the fulfilment of the MEF posture will be delayed until 2016, when the U.S. and European countries are predicted to exit the debt crisis, producers are ready to market the fifth generation fighters, and old generation weapons are no longer relevant with military technology dynamics. Fifth generation fighters are fighters with technological advances such as stealth, high manoeuvrability, advanced avionics, networked data fusion from sensors and avionics, and multirole capabilities. The only currently combat-ready fifth-generation fighters are the United States' F-22s and the F-35s, with Russia's PAK FAs, China's J-20s and other aircrafts currently in development. Introduction of other fifth-generation fighters are planned in 2017-27 period, and their capabilities will make current fighters obsolete.
KF-X deal hold will mean delay of fighter technology transfer until international arms market is flooded with fifth-generation fighters. The time for the development of fighter technology is now when international arms sales are decreasing, as shown in the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)'s top 100 arms-producing and military services companies in the world. In the report, arms sales in 2011 declined 5 percent from the year before to a total of US$410 billion. The best scenario is if the new Korean government can sooner convince the Parliament, while our government can conduct better coordination with the House of Representatives on the KF-X project.
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