Anticipating The Fifth Generation Of War, Lemhanas Encourages Indonesian Air Force To Develop Space Technology

Lemhannas Governor Andi Widjajanto. (ANTARA/Syaiful Hakim)

JAKARTA - The Governor of the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas) Andi Widjajanto said that the fifth generation of war must be anticipated. Therefore, he encouraged the Indonesian Air Force to develop space and cyber technology, aka cyber.

Andi delivered this on the sidelines of the International Air Power Seminar "Developing National AirPower to Face Threats in the Fifth Generation War Era" at Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base, Jakarta, Wednesday, March 30.

"The characteristics of technology development for the fifth generation of war cannot choose to only develop one of them," said Andi.

"So we can't choose, for example, only developing fighters, or developing surveillance, or developing cyber only. That can't be done," he continued.

This is because the characteristics of the development of fifth-generation technology must be carried out simultaneously or simultaneously, he added.

Therefore, he hopes that the development of fifth-generation technology can be prioritized immediately because there are already many countries in the world with cyber armed forces.

"Nowadays many cyber air forces have become their own dimension, the commanders are in place. Space has become its own dimension, the commanders are in place. So like the US, China, Russia, even Australia, the armed forces have six or seven forces. There are no longer three conventional ones like in the past, for example in the 40s or 50s," he explained.

In the National Armed Forces (TNI), according to him, for the cyber dimension, there may already be pilots in each unit, but they have not yet penetrated into the space domain.

"Not there yet, maybe later we will start when Indonesia plans to deploy defense satellites, military satellites starting from now," he said.

The development of the main defense system tool (alutsista) will also not only revolve around combining fighter aircraft with missiles, but will be added with surveillance mechanisms, according to him.

"In the Air Force, it is the development of the Air Defense Identification Zone and System (ADIS); then how will it be combined across domains with what is developed in other dimensions," he added.

Meanwhile, Air Force Chief of Staff (Kasau) Marshal TNI Fadjar Prasetyo said the fifth-generation war will rely on non-kinetic forces or without relying on conventional weapons.

"This can take the form of energy, social and economic disruption, to disinformation," said Fadjar.

According to him, the invisible war will use cyberattacks by utilizing the latest technologies, such as AI (Artificial Intelligence), and autonomous systems.

More deeply, he continued, preparation for the fifth generation of war will involve elements, such as network-centric thinking, combat cloud construct, multidomain battle, and fusion world warfare.

"This will be a new capability or attribute in the military superiority competition," said the pilot of the A-4 Skyhawk fighter with the callsign "Bobcat".

Therefore, Fadjar said that the Indonesian Air Force must be prepared to respond to these future challenges, by building an airpower capable of utilizing data integration and connectivity.