List Of Weapons Still Imported By Indonesia, Starting From Fires To Bombs

Illustration of arms imports (Freepic)

YOGYAKARTA Gun imports are still flowing heavily in the country, even though President Joko Widodo has banned this activity. Based on records from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), a number of ministries/agencies are still taking weapons and ammunition from abroad. So what is the list of weapons that are still imported by Indonesia?

President Jokowi has warned Ministries and Valley (KL) to reduce import activities of military equipment. With the reason that a number of weapons and ammunition can be made in Indonesia, it is better to use domestically made products.

BPS revealed a list of weapons that were still imported by Indonesia during the January-July 2023 period with a value of US$ 102.39 million or equivalent to Rp. 1.56 trillion (exchange rate of Rp. 15,300). Various weapons and ammunition imported ranging from pistols, bombs, to defense equipment.

Military equipment that is still imported today includes military weapons, other than revolvers, postal and the arms of heading 9307, 93010,0, 930120 whose imports in March 2023 were zero.

However, there was an increase back to US$42, US$9.1 million in May. In June 2023 there was zero return, but in July it was creeping again to reach US$143 thousand.

The form of ammunition imported from outside is the category of other immunitions and projects and parts thereof, including shot and cartridge wads. Actually, the import of ammunition was nil last March.

However, the import of this type of main weapon system (alutsista) rose again to US$1.2 million in April 2023. Then in May it reached US$3.3 million and had dropped to US$102 thousand in June. But again jumped to US$558 thousand in July 2023.

Imported groups of bomb-type weapons include bombs, torpedoes, granades, mines, missiles, and similar rounds of war and parts thereof. Actually, in February, March, and May 2023 there were no imported activities in the bomb category.

However, in April 2023, imports of US$1.2 million incoming bombs were recorded. The imports of this type of weapon in June skyrocketed to US$14.3 million and fell by half to US$7.1 million in July 2023..

The type of defense equipment that is still imported is fire trucks. There was no import activity of this weapon in May, but the import figure rose in March 2023 to touch US$27 thousand. Then the import of defense equipment penetrated US$105 thousand in April, US$6,337 in June, and experienced swelling to US$11 million in July.

In detail, this type of weapon import activity reached US$26 thousand as of March 2023. Then it increased to US$94 thousand in April and fell to US$49 thousand in May. But again shot to US$3.4 million in June, and returned to US$2.5 million in July.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) noted that the cumulative total imports from January to July 2023 reached US$26.2 million. The peak value of imports occurred in July 2023, reaching US$7.7 million.

When viewed by the country of origin, South Korea became the main supplier of defense equipment to Indonesia for the past six months, with a total of US$25 million. Indonesia consistently imports weapons and ammunition from the country.

China became the second country to take weapons, with total arms exports to Indonesia worth US$19.1 million since early 2023. However, in February there were no defense equipment imports from China.

Furthermore, the United States donated US$15 million worth of weapons. Meanwhile, South Africa and Spain each delivered weapons amounting to US$10.6 million and US$6 million. The total value of defense equipment imports from various other countries reached US$78 million.

That is the list of weapons that are still imported by Indonesia until the middle of 2023. When viewed from this amount, of course, it is very inversely proportional to the instructions from President Jokowi who wants to reduce imports of military weapons.

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