Waiting For Orders From French Manufacturers To Be Completed, The Indonesian Navy Proposes To Buy Interim Submarines

KSAL Admiral TNI Muhammad Ali (left) had a press conference on the sidelines of an international seminar entitled 'Future Submarine' in Jakarta, Tuesday (14/5/2024). BETWEEN/M Risyal Hidayat.

JAKARTA - The Chief of Staff of the Indonesian Navy (KSAL) Admiral Muhammad Ali revealed that the Indonesian Navy may propose the purchase of submarines for temporary use (interim). This purchase is while waiting for the new submarine ordered by Indonesia to be completed and operational.

Admiral Ali explained that building a new submarine will take 57 years, while currently there are four submarines ready for combat.

Ideally, he continued, the Indonesian Navy was strengthened by 12 submarines to maintain Indonesia's waters, which covers an area of 6.4 million square kilometers.

"It is possible that we will take (buy, red.) from several places, because as stated by the Minister of Defense (Prabowo Subianto, ed.), we need a large number of submarines. To build Scorpene takes 7 years, 5 7 years. For that, we must have an interim submarine. It is possible that the choice from various countries that I have visited," Ali said when met on the sidelines of his activities in Jakarta, Tuesday, May 14, was confiscated by Antara.

In the past year, Ali and several Indonesian Navy Headquarters officials have visited several countries and met with foreign shipyards to see including conventional submarine technology and unmanned systems. Some of these countries include Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, and China.

"So we are reviewing all leading submarine shipyard industries, especially for conventional, non-nuclear submarines, but they already use modern driving such as Lithium-ion batteries, or other driving that are currently being activated by the submarine industry," said Ali.

So far, Indonesia has been strengthened by four submarines, namely KRI Cakra-401, KRI Ardadedali-404, KRI Nagapasa-403, and KRI Alugoro-405. In the future, Indonesia will be strengthened by two Scorpene Evolved submarines from the French Naval Group.

The two Indonesian ordered ships are planned to be built from the start at the PT PAL Indonesia shipyard in Surabaya, East Java. So far, the two Indonesian order ships have not been built at the PT PAL shipyard because they are still waiting for an effective purchase contract.

"This will start after the contract is effective. Hopefully, it can be done directly at PT PAL and hopefully starting from the first ship to be built at PT PAL, and from the Naval Group it is ready to build a submarine from the start at PT PAL," said Ali.

On the same occasion, KSAL said that the Indonesian Navy during the Old Order was strengthened by 12 Whiskey-class submarines. However, the ships retired / stopped operating in the early 1980s to early 1990s, after strengthening the Indonesian Navy for approximately 30 years.

Therefore, he believes that for now the Indonesian Navy needs to be strengthened by 12 submarines that are ready to fight to protect Indonesian waters.

"In ideal, there should be a lot of optimum, but maybe 12. In the past we had 12 submarines in the Old Order era, in the era of President Soekarno's administration we had 12 submarines, and in the future we might have a large submarine, 12 submarines, and other small submarines or unmanned systems ( unmanned submarines), yes," said KSAL.