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After a prosperous year in 2021 in terms of combat aircraft orders, Dassault is continuing its momentum and has just signed a contract with Indonesia for the first six Rafales. In total, Jakarta might buy up to 42 aircraft according to the Indonesian Defense Minister. This is the first time that the Southeast Asian archipelago has purchased French combat aircraft.
Today, faced with rising Asia-Pacific tensions between China and the United States, Indonesia is seeking to diversify its alliances and suppliers of military equipment.
The equipment it has is aging. These are essentially American F-16s and Russian Sukhoi. Jakarta is therefore in negotiation with multiple partners in order to renew its combat aircraft.
An aging fleet
And the choice is sometimes forced. A contract the archipelago signed in 2018 for the purchase of eleven fighter jets from Russia never materialized. At issue: the American Caatsa law which provides for automatic sanctions when a country concludes a “significant transaction” with the Russian arms sector.
It’s no secret that the Indonesian military fleet is anything but brand new. In recent years, this reality has taken tragic turns, as with the crash of a military plane that killed 142 people in 2015, or last year with the sunken submarine KRI Nanggala 402 with its 53 crew members, reports our correspondent in the region, Gabrielle Marshals.
Faced with rising regional tensions, it has therefore become increasingly clear that Jakarta does not have the means to achieve its ambitions, i.e. to maintain its geopolitical weight in Asia-Pacific, where China and the United States is waging a war of influence by proxy.
Paris wants to strengthen ties with Jakarta
For its part, France is seeking to strengthen ties with Indonesia following seeing its strategy for asserting itself in the Asia-Pacific shaken last year. Australia broke a mega-contract to buy French submarines for the benefit of the Aukus alliance with the United States and the United Kingdom. Jakarta and Paris have also initiated cooperation in the field of submarines.
The sale of 42 Rafale to Indonesia therefore makes it possible to envisage a solid alliance, points out General Philippe Moralès, commander of defense and air operations, Jakarta being able to play a pivotal role in the projection of forces from mainland France to French territories. of the Pacific, as our defense specialist explains, Frank Alexander.
For its part, Jakarta calls for ever closer cooperation in this area. After India, Indonesia is the second Indo-Pacific country to have chosen the Rafale over American aircraft.
Since independence, Indonesia had always found it difficult to arbitrate the question of the budget allocated to defence, in particular air defence, sometimes to favor economic development, sometimes to focus on internal terrorist threats, or sometimes to favor army, especially under the reign of dictator Suharto.
But the current Minister of Defence, who nevertheless made his career in the army and who is none other than Suharto’s son-in-law, today seems more than motivated by the idea of refreshing the Indonesian fleet.
