Jakarta – The Indonesian armed forces have been forced to take delivery of six British Hawk-200 fighter planes by ship, because vital navigation and communications equipment was blocked by a US arms embargo.

"Three of the six planes have already been transported from Britain last week," the head of the Indonesian air force base in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Colonel Drajat Raharjo said, according to the Kompas daily on Saturday.

"They are expected to arrive in Pontianak end of April," he said, adding that the other three were currently being dismantled and packed into containers. They would be shipped to Pontianak next month. The decision to send the planes by sea had been taken after the US refused to sell radar, navigational and communication equipment, and power generator controller units for the fighters.

The US imposed an embargo on military equipment sales to Indonesia following the post-ballot violence in East Timor last year. Col Raharjo said that technicians from the British producer of the fighters would be on hand to assemble the fighters on site when the shipments arrived.

The air force would also cannibalise some of the missing components from other planes for temporary use on the new fighters. "But, if the US maintains its stance, then we will buy the four important components from other countries," he said, adding: "There are still many other countries capable of producing those components and the only question is our financial capability."

Jakarta bought the British-made Hawks as part of its efforts to diversify its sources of arms and reduce dependence on the US. Indonesia's dependence was most evident in its air force, which relied on US-made F-16s as its backbone.