Slobodan Lekic, Jakarta – Frustrated by Washington's long running embargo over arms sales because of human rights concerns, Indonesia plans to buy dozens of high-performance fighter bombers from Russia over the next several years.
The state Antara news agency reported Thursday that the deal was struck during a visit to Russia by President Megawati Sukarnoputri. On Wednesday, she toured a testing ground for Sukhoi fighter jets in Zhukovsky outside Moscow and watched the performance of a Su-27 fighter jet.
The two governments have agreed to improve overall trade ties. However, the focus of Megawati's visit appears to have been procuring Russian jets, helicopters and armored vehicles to modernize Indonesia's obsolescent armed forces.
Indonesia had looked to the United States for its military needs since the 1960s after then-dictator Gen. Suharto seized power from Sukarno, the country's founding president and Megawati's father. Annual arms purchases peaked at $400 million in the 1980s.
In 1991, however, the US Congress banned exports after Indonesian troops killed hundreds of civilians in East Timor. In 1999, East Timor seceded, but only after Indonesian forces and pro-Indonesian militias laid waste to the territory as the military withdrew after a pro-independence referendum. The destruction prompted US lawmakers to extend the ban to cover almost all military ties with Jakarta.
Since then, some members of the Bush administration – particularly Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a former ambassador to Jakarta – have pushed for the ban to be repealed. They argue that Jakarta's generals should be engaged not shunned despite their human rights abuses.
The embargo and resulting lack of spare parts has had a devastating effect on the serviceability of all US weapons systems in the Indonesian inventory. But the air force has been particularly severely hit. Only half of its 10 F-16 Falcons and 24 F-5E Tiger fighters are considered airworthy, while an entire 12-plane attack squadron of Skyhawk jets had to be grounded.
Speaking in Moscow, Indonesia's military chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said the country would purchase an initial batch of two long-range Su-27 and two Su-30 jets to be delivered this year. At least 44 other planes will be delivered over the next four years, Sutarto said. "We have decided to buy these jet fighters and ideally we need four squadrons of 12 planes each," he said as quoted by Antara.
The Sukhois will likely replace all US-made jets in the Indonesian inventory, except for the F-16s which may soldier on as fighter-bombers. Their 1,800-mile range will allow them to patrol the vast Indonesian archipelago better than the short-range US jets.