John McBeth, Jakarta – Before it began buying American in the 1970s, the Indonesian air force was comprised entirely of top-of-the-line Soviet-built fighters, bombers and helicopters. They were as much a legacy of the Sukarno years as the muscle-bound Lenin-style statuary found around Jakarta. Now, barely two months after scrapping the proposed purchase of nine American-made Lockheed Martin F-16 interceptors, Jakarta is looking to Russia once again for frontline combat aircraft.
National Development Planning Minister and former air force Gen. Ginandjar Kartasasmita announced on August 5 a $410 million deal to buy 12 Sukhoi Su-30MK multirole fighters. Defence Ministry sources indicate the aircraft may be fitted with Western rather than Soviet avionics and guidance systems.
The Indonesians are also buying eight Mi-17 helicopters for the newly enlarged Kopassus Special Forces Regiment. The Special Forces commander, Maj.-Gen. Prabowo Subianto, had originally sought refurbished American UH-1H troop-carriers to give his elite unit the lift capability it lacked during last year's hostage drama in Irian Jaya. But that sale went the same way as the F-16s.
President Suharto cancelled the F-16 purchase in early June, citing the "wholly unjustified criticism" of Indonesia in the United States Congress over East Timor and human-rights violations.
Although the Defence Ministry sources insist Indonesia is not thumbing its nose at the U.S. and that evaluations of the Su-30 began before the F-16 deal was proposed, the timing of the announcement appeared significant. As one U.S. official told the REVIEW: "I think it's a case of them having their cake and eating it too. They may not want to acknowledge it, but they do seem to be making a point."
Worth a bargain-basement $162 million, the nine U.S. aircraft were among 28 F-16A and B models Washington has withheld from Pakistan since 1990 because of Islamabad's refusal to disclose details of its nuclear-weapons programme. The U.S. government first proposed the sale to Jakarta in about mid-1995. Indonesian officials say that at that time they were already looking at the Su-30 to fulfil a requirement for aircraft with greater range than the 10 F-16s already in service.
Suharto finally approved the F-16 purchase in April 1996, but it began to go sour only months later when Congress threatened to block the deal. U.S. lawmakers wanted to deliver a response to the government-engineered overthrow of the Indonesian Democratic Party's chairman Megawati Sukarnoputri. Additional threats, particularly from Rhode Island Democrat Patrick Kennedy, further angered Indonesia.
Some Jakarta-based analysts believe that in any case, Indonesia could not afford both aircraft. The decision to buy the Su-30s, announced even before a contract has been signed, came two months after an angry Suharto had scrapped the F-16 sale and ended Indonesia's participation in the U.S.-led International Military Education and Training programme.
Negotiations are still under way over payment, technology transfer and spares supply. But Indonesia is expected to meet much of the overall cost of $600 million through a counter-trade deal involving palm oil, coffee and rubber. That transaction will be handled by Prima Comexindo, a trading house run by Hashim Djojohadikusumo, the businessman-brother of Prabowo. Comexindo has developed an extensive counter-trade network across Central Asia, the Middle East and Russia.
Both the helicopters and the jets will give the armed forces a significant performance boost. The Mi-17 helicopter carries 30 passengers, twice the capacity of the Bell UH-1H. Defence experts say the advantage of Indonesia buying bigger helicopters means it won't have to train as many flight crews.
The government says the Su-30s will be based at Ujung Pandang in South Sulawesi, mostly to protect the giant Natuna gasfield in the South China Sea–the focus last year of a major combined forces exercise. With a combat range of 3,000 kilometres, which the Indonesians could extend to 5,000 kilometres by inflight refuelling from C-130 Hercules tankers, the Su-30s will be capable of covering most of the archipelago.
In general, however, one senior Indonesian defence official characterizes the F-16s and now the Su-30s as "toys for the boys"–purchases that within the limitations imposed by tight budgetary restraints allow the air force to keep up with the latest technology. "Basically, our policy is to be as efficient as possible and as sophisticated as necessary," he told the REVIEW.
However, the Su-30 deal didn't seem to please everyone. Research and Technology Minister B.J. Habibie, who travelled to Moscow after the recent Paris Air Show to look at Russian military hardware, is believed to have lobbied for the French-made Dassault Mirage 2000-5 because of its more advanced technology. "The Russian economic mechanism doesn't encourage high-quality products," sniffed Habibie after the deal was announced. "It's not geared towards market forces."
Among the Sukhoi's shortcomings, Habibie told reporters, was a shorter lifespan than American and European aircraft, a more intensive maintenance cycle and higher fuel consumption. The only other contender appears to have been the Swedish-built JAS- 39 Gripen, but given its heavy content of American components, any sale would have required U.S. approval.
The defence official says the backbone of Indonesia's frontline air-defence system will continue to be built around three squadrons of ageing A-4 Skyhawk attack jets and F- 5E/F interceptors, as well as some 40 British Aerospace Hawks, including 24 new 100/200 models which are now being delivered. The Indonesians have options on another 16 Hawks–a deal which is still going ahead despite the recent debate in Britain over arms sales to Indonesia.
Russian defence sales teams have become increasingly aggressive in the Asian region. The Su-30 was a star attraction at last year's Indonesian Air Show, with Sukhoi taking some of Indonesia's generals for high-speed joy-rides. Because of delayed requests and mixed signals, the Americans had little hardware on show to match it.
Apart from their marketing, the Russians have been going out of their way to improve after-sales service–one of the problems which dogged India's three MiG-29 squadrons in the early 1990s. Defence sources say the Malaysians are generally pleased with the support they are getting from Russia since the MiG-29s entered service in 1995, and even the Indians have given a vote of confidence to Sukhoi by ordering 40 Su-30s.
Indonesia's specific mention of the Natuna gas field as a reason for buying the Su-30 underlines the fact that Jakarta is now giving a much higher priority to the protection of its maritime resources. When its status as an archipelagic state was recognized with the implementation of the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention in 1994, Indonesia gained an additional 3 million square kilometres of territorial waters, and jurisdiction over another 3 million square kilometres of an exclusive economic zone.
Perhaps more worrying than the as-yet untapped Natuna is the $2 billion that Indonesia is estimated to be losing each year to fishing poachers. Indonesia recently took delivery of 20 new Australian-built N22/24 Nomad aircraft for sea surveillance and has plans to buy more coastal patrol craft, tankers and other logistics vessels. Whether Indonesia looks again to Russia to fulfil some of these needs will probably depend on how well the Su-30 deal flies–and how much further the U.S. Congress wants to push its point.