TNI Pushes Defense Budget to Become National Industrial Engine

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JAKARTA - Assistant to the TNI Commander in Chief, Major General (Marsda) Dr. Budhi Achmadi, assessed that Indonesia needs to change its approach to the defense budget. Defense spending should not only be seen as a cost, but as an investment to build industries, technology, jobs, and exports.

According to Budhi, the old way of looking at defense as a consumer expenditure is no longer adequate. Geopolitical rivalries are increasing. Military technology is advancing rapidly. Indonesia also needs modern defense forces to guard its vast archipelago.

"Defense does not have to be a burden on the state budget, but can be a national growth engine," Marsda Budhi Achmadi said in a written explanation received in Jakarta, Wednesday, June 10.

The two-star general referred to the thinking of defense economist Ron Matthews from King's College London. According to Matthews, defense strength is not adequately measured by the size of the budget or the number of military equipment. More important is the ability of a country to turn defense spending into industrial capacity, technological mastery, job creation, and competitiveness.

Indonesia, said Budhi, has a huge need. This country needs fighter planes, warships, radars, satellites, drones, cyber defense systems, and other military technology. However, the procurement of defense equipment should not stop as the purchase of goods.

Every defense spending must encourage national industries, strengthen research, increase workforce skills, and open up room for innovation.

Budhi gave examples of South Korea and Turkey. The two countries used to rely on imports of military equipment. Now, their defense industries are able to export drones, warships, combat vehicles, and electronic systems to the global market.

Indonesia also has an initial capital. National strategic industries have experience making aircraft, ships, combat vehicles, ammunition, radars, and other defense systems. The challenge is to build an ecosystem that unites industry, campuses, research institutions, businesses, and end users.

In the defense economy, the ecosystem is known as the Defense Industrial Base or defense industrial base. This means that the industrial foundation that makes a country able to produce, maintain, and develop its own defense technology.

The idea does not stop at alutsista. Budhi assessed that defense investment must also produce technologies that are useful for the civilian sector. Many everyday technologies are born from military needs, such as the internet, GPS, satellites, jet engines, sensors, composite materials, and artificial intelligence.

Therefore, the benefits of defense technology need to be channeled into the health, transportation, energy, agriculture, education, and digital economy sectors.

Budhi also encouraged defense exports. Products such as transport aircraft, patrol boats, combat vehicles, radars, ammunition, and drones are considered to have the opportunity to enter the Southeast Asian, African, Middle Eastern, and Pacific markets.

He offered the concept of Defence Economy 5.0, namely the integration of defence, industry, digital technology, artificial intelligence, green economy, and national development.

The target is five: building a credible military, making the defense industry a locomotive for industrialization, accelerating the mastery of strategic technology, increasing defense exports, and creating a multiplier effect for the national economy.

"The size of the success of defense development should not only be calculated from the number of warships, fighter planes, or missiles owned," said Marsda Budhi.

According to Marsda Budhi, Indonesia's defense must produce three benefits at once: security dividends, economic dividends, and technology dividends.

Within the framework of Indonesia Emas 2045, Budhi assessed that defense must be the foundation of independence. Not only as a guardian of sovereignty, but also as a driver of industrialization and national growth.