KSAL Expects Contract For Purchase Of Patrol Vessels Signed 2024

JAKARTA - The Chief of Staff of the Indonesian Navy Admiral Muhammad Ali hopes that the plan to purchase offshore patrol boats or OPVs will be realized soon. Mainly for the type of ship that can be modified into a frigate.

Ali hopes that negotiations on the purchase of the OPV targeted by the Ministry of Defense (Kemenhan) can be completed soon and the contract for the purchase of the ship can be signed in 2024.

"OPV remains so. The plan is that we will buy an OPV which one day can turn into a frigate. That's what we hope for and in the future there will be several options for the OPV and frigates," said Admiral Ali during a press conference after the commemoration of Fleet Day 2023 at Pondok Rowing Pier, Jakarta, Tuesday 5 December, confiscated by Antara.

Ali continued that currently the Indonesian defense industry, namely PT PAL Indonesia, is building a frigate whose project is called the "Red and White Festival".

"Now it is at the keel laying stage (the ship's paid off, red), if I'm not mistaken, it will get there and we hope that in the near future it can continue, the contract is effective, and everything including the OPV can be 2024," said Ali.

The construction of the Red and White frigate by PT PAL in Surabaya in collaboration with Rosyth Royal Dockyard Ltd (Babcock), England, is scheduled to be completed within five to six years.

The collaboration to build the Red and White Frigate, which is of the Arrowhead Fregate type, is a follow-up to the agreement between Indonesia and Britain which was signed by the two countries government in September 2021.

Babcock, aerospace, defense and security company of the UK, approved the granting of licenses for PT PAL to produce Indonesian-ordered frigates, Arrowhead 149 (AH140) at the PT PAL shipyard, Surabaya, East Java, and carried out by domestic workers.

Meanwhile, for the plan to buy offshore patrol boats, Italy is one of the countries that offers its domestically made OPV to Indonesia.

Deputy Secretary General of Italian Defense Vice Admiral Pier Federico Bisconti came directly to Jakarta and met with Secretary General of the Ministry of Defense Marshal Madya TNI Donny Ermawan Taufanto at the Indonesian Ministry of Defense Office, Jakarta, on November 10, 2023.

The two discussed strengthening defense cooperation, including alluding to the possibility of Indonesia buying two units of OPV ITS Francesco Morosini, which is part of Thaon at the Revel class, made by a shipbuilding company in Italy, Fincantieri.

Not long after the meeting, one of the well-known Italian newspapers Il Secolo XIX, in its broadcast news on November 15, 2023, believes that there are two ready-to-use OPVs offered by Fincantieri to Indonesia, namely Giovanni delle Bande Nere and Marcantono Colonna.

However, the source used by the newspaper does not rule out the possibility that Indonesia will be interested in Fincantieri in producing new ships that are in accordance with Indonesia's specifications/requests.

Fincantieri built three types of OPV, namely light, light plus, and full type. On the company's official website, Fincantieri said that its OPV ship, in its complete series, can also function as a destroyer, in addition to its main function as offshore patrol, sea evacuation, and operations to protect civilians (civil protection operation).

However, so far the Ministry of Defense has not issued an official statement regarding the possibility of Indonesia buying the OPV from the Italian shipyard.