Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – Indonesia has confirmed that it would no longer co-produce South Korea's KF-21 fighter jet in favor of directly procuring the aircraft from Seoul, after years of uncertainties hanging over the defense project.
About a decade ago, both countries shook hands on jointly developing the KF-21 twin-engine aircraft. The project is reportedly worth 8.1 trillion won (almost $5.3 billion), with Jakarta only taking over not even a quarter of the burden. Aside from Jakarta's missed payment deadlines, the data theft case against an Indonesian engineer had set turbulences in the journey. Defense Ministry spokesman Rico Ricardo Sirait revealed that there were sweeping changes to the deal in question.
"The government is adjusting the scheme in the KF-21 Boramae program. We will no longer co-produce the jet, but we will adopt a direct procurement mechanism," Rico told the Jakarta Globe via text on Monday.
He went on to say that Jakarta had made a "comprehensive evaluation" before making the decision. Indonesia had factored in the program's effectiveness, technology transfer, economic value, and domestic defense needs. Rico also admitted that Indonesia had not decided on how many KF-21 jets it would buy under the new mechanism.
"Everything is still under assessment. We will adjust the [purchase] depending on the Indonesian Air Force's operational needs and our country's spending capacity," Rico said.
The sudden reversal came after a joint statement in early April indicated positive progress in the KF-21 project.
The 29-point statement gave details on what South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and his Indonesian counterpart Prabowo Subianto had discussed at the latter's Seoul trip. The document wrote that both leaders had "noted with satisfaction" that the KF-21 development is "scheduled for completion in June 2026". They also refreshed their commitment to the KF-21 cooperation, while signaling plans to expand to trainer aircraft and anti-tank guided missile systems.
In 2025, South Korea announced to have reached a deal to slash Indonesia's contribution in the project to 600 billion won (now almost $389 million). This marks a major drop from the initially agreed 1.6 trillion won (around $1 billion). But a lighter financial burden means reductions to the technology transfer, reports have shown. Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) is taking the lead with the aircraft manufacturer Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI) sitting as the junior partner.
Beefing up the country's airpower has long been on Prabowo's wish list.
Indonesia's annual budget allocation for overall defense purposes comes in at Rp 337 trillion (about $18.9 billion) in 2026. The Defense Ministry gets approximately Rp 187.1 trillion (almost $10.5 billion), and around Rp 83.5 trillion (nearly $4.7 billion) goes to military upgrades.
Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/indonesia-no-longer-coproducer-for-koreas-kf21-fighter-je