Indonesia Signed Initial Contract For Rafales

Dassault Rafale. Anthony Pecchi

SHAH ALAM: Indonesia has signed an initial contract for the purchase of 36 Dassault Rafale omni-role fighters, says Airspace Review website. The respectable website/publication are helmed by Indonesian most experience defence and aerospace journalists hence its reports are highly accurate.

The initial contract – basically a Letter of Intent (LOI) for other countries – will allow for the negotiations of the final contract – Letter of Award – which of course involved financial terms, transfer of technology and other items of interest including local content issues. Angkasa Review said there is no time lines for the negotiations to be concluded.

Italian Navy ITS Carabiniere FREMM frigate. Fincantieri

The report came as Fincantieri of Italy announced the contract for the sale to Indonesia of six FREMM frigates and the modernization and sale of 2 Maestrale-class frigates, and the related logistical support. It is unclear when the first ships will be delivered though.

Dassault Rafale

From Angkasa Review:

AIRSPACE REVIEW (airspace-review.com) – Kabar baik dari rencana pembelian alutsista oleh Kementerian Pertahanan Republik Indonesia (Kemhan RI).

Sumber Airspace Review di Jakarta mengatakan, Kemhan RI dan Dassault Aviation (pabrik pembuat Rafale) dari Perancis telah menandatangani kontrak awal untuk pengadaan 36 jet tempur multiperan tersebut.Penandatanganan kontrak awal yang disebut kontrak “Come Into Force” itu ditandatangani pada Senin, 7 Juni 2021 dan akan mulai berlaku pada Desember 2021.

“Kontrak ‘Come Into Force’ sudah ditandatangani pada Senin, 7 Juni. Kontrak akan mulai berlaku pada Desember tahun ini,” kata sumber AR.

Ditambahkan, perjalanan Indonesia untuk mendapatkan pesawat Rafale dari Perancis memang masih panjang.

A French Navy Rafale with an Exocet

Personnaly I think the contract award will only be signed once the current term of President Joko Widodo ends in 2024 and if the current Defence Ministe Probowo Subianto is elected to succeed him. I could be wrong of course, who am I speak about Indonesian politics then?

A Rafale being tested for the F3R standard.

Anyhow from previous reports, we know that the Indonesian Defence Ministry is also planning to buy 36 Boeing F-15EX Eagles as part of a quad-trillion Rupiah plans to modernise its armed forces until 2040. Some of the procurement will financed via soft-loans from the manufacturing countries which is likely to involve France for the purchase of the Rafales and at least four Scorpene submarines.

Dassault Rafales of Egyptian Air Force. Dassault- Anthony Pecchi

Whether or not all of this will go ahead is beyond me.

— Malaysian Defence

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13 Comments

  1. Syabas Indonesia.

    Covid bukan alasan ekonomi menguncup dan perolehan aset ketenteraan tak boleh dilakukan.

  2. 36 Rafales, 36 F15 EX, 33 F16, 17 Mix Sukhois, not to mention KFX korean joint venture, if this comes to fruition, its a formidable array of assets.

  3. “Syabas” indeed …

    On paper the TNI-AL will have an impressive ORBAT. In reality I don’t envy the people responsible for logistics and training.

    At a time when even Tier 1 air arms with far greater resources are cutting down on the different types operated to lower the support footprint and reduce costs; the TNI will have to maintain a support/training infrastructure for F-16s, Su-27s, Su-30s (all in different variants and not fully compatible), Mil-36s, AH-64s and a whole list of other platforms.

  4. Sorry if you already cover this. But what is the progress of 15to5, army 4nextg, and cap55 1st phase? We already procure like uav, interceptor boat, lms according to the plan timeline 1st phase. Only the lcs ran into problems and some issue with lms spec.

  5. If this true than we need to get AWACS n d Kuwaiti hornet asap. A force of 3@4 AWACS, 18su,18hornet n 36 lca will give us some level of deterrence without breaking d bank against Indonesia until we get our 5gen plane.

  6. That’s quite an ambitious plan, really. Rest to see if the Indons would be able to financial support maintaining 2 different high end airframes.

  7. @ZekMR
    Yeah because Indonesia couldn’t care less they have 2million cases and >50k deaths (officially, unofficially could be 3x higher). They are also plotting massive finances to relocate administrative capital to Kalimantan. Somehow I wonder if much of these will go the way of IFX/KFX.

    But at least they will have a strong military to make them feel proud in poverty.

  8. Ujang – “If this true than we need to get AWACS n d Kuwaiti hornet asap”

    We first have to decide what our priorities are and whether procurement is threat or capability driven. We can’t elect to every move undertaken by neighbours; especially given we don’t have the resources and they are not immediate threats.

  9. Nothing to be alarmed of, they are planning for power projection and deterrence against a particular naughty bully.
    We shall continue with our plan accordingly. Even though we will take 35 years to get to the level we plan for, no worries, at least there is plenty of time to find the money to pay for our equipment.

  10. lalok – “they are planning for power projection”

    If they were planning for power proration per see; we would see more LSTs and LPDs being bought and the TNI’s overall logistics and support capabilities significantly improved.

    A lot of what they do is for prestige; Indonesia is the largest most populous country in the region; one with a growing economy and the “senior” ASEAN member. It wants to be seen and acknowledged as such.

    lalok – “Even though we will take 35 years to get to the level we plan for”

    With better planning; less politics and a chear holistic and honest assessment of what we want to achieve; plus a change in mindset; it won’t take 35 years.

    lalok – “plenty of time to find the money to pay for our equipment.”

    Finding the cash is one thing; ensuring we get the best value out of our cash by the armed services getting the desired capability and the taxpayer their money’s worth is another thing.

  11. Good for indonesia, for us lets get first 18 LIFT as planned and the MPA.Hopefully the LIFT will be supersonic as dont want us to keep using sub sonic jets for interceptor duty.Hopefully next year they will oncrease the msintenance and operation allocation by another 10%

  12. Kamal A – “Good for Indonesia”

    On paper yes but in realty?

    On various forums Indonesians are questioning the reasoning behind such a diverse fleet and the associated problems in having the needed support and training infrastructure to operate 2 F-16 variants, Si-27s (at least 2 variants), Su-30s and Rafales.

    Kamal A – “lets get first 18 LIFT as planned”

    Yes but it’s a sorry state of affairs really. A mere 18 to replace the 15-16 Hawk 200’s and 5-6 Hawk 200 for both the LCA and LIFT role. The remainder to come in the following Malaysia Plan. A reflection of the importance we place on defence.

    Kamal A – “supersonic as dont want us to keep using sub sonic jets for interceptor duty”

    Ideally yes but depending on early warming; whether the target is moving away or towards the QRA and whether it’s a fighter looking for trouble as opposed to a airliner which has mistakenly strayed into our airspace; a subsonic was platform still has utility.

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