History Of The Pasopati Submarine: Help Seize West Irian And Must Give Up From The Russian Embargo

Pasopati Submarine (Photo id.wikipedia.org)

YOGYAKARTA - The history of the Pasopati submarine cannot be separated from the efforts of the Indonesian government to seize West Irian. At that time, KRI Pasopati joined the submarine unit of the Hiu Kencana Corps which was founded on July 1, 1961.

The Hiu Kencana Corps served in the Trikora operation and served as anti-shipping for the enemy, sinking enemy submarines, silent landing, and reconnaissance assignments.

History of the Pasopati Submarine and Indonesian Strength in the Ocean

As stated above, KRI Pasopati helped seize West Irian, an area that was in dispute between Indonesia and the Netherlands. At that time, the diplomatic route could no longer be taken. In exchange, Indonesia took steps to secure West Irian from the waters.

Indonesia's efforts received support from the Soviet Union. The country provides soft loans in the form of 12 Whiskey-Class submarines, one of which is named Pasopati.

The name Pasopati is taken from the name of the puppet character Arjuna's weapon. In the puppet world, Pasopati is the arrow that Arjuna uses to kill the giant who is his enemy.

The Netherlands is indeed quite afraid of Indonesia's defense equipment. At that time, the Whiskey-Class submarine was known to be sophisticated. In fact, on the Indomiliter website, it is said that at that time the Whiskey class was a diesel-fueled submarine that the NATO block feared.

The Netherlands itself does not have a submarine with the same specifications as the Whiskey-Class. Indonesia is the only country in the southern hemisphere that has this type of submarine.

A visitor sees the Pasopati 410 submarine periscope mell (Twitter / Kemdikbud_RI) Caption

In history, KRI Pasopati is remembered as a submarine with a heroic story because it has the longest tenure compared to 11 other Whiskey-Classes.

Indonesia's efforts to secure West Irian continue to meet with resistance. In fact, post-Gestapu (Gerakan 30 September), Russia participated in blocking Indonesia's efforts by embargoing military spare parts entering Indonesia.

This resulted in the difficulty of sending spare parts to Indonesia. To overcome this problem, spare parts cannibalization is being carried out. One by one the submarines began to lose their strength. The last one able to survive was KRI Pasopati, which was recorded as being decommissioned from the Indonesian Navy on January 25, 1990.

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