South East Asia Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Indonesia’s defense minister recently confirmed the purchase of 11 Russian-made fighter jets.

Following two years of protracted negotiations, Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu confirmed on July 26 that Indonesia will procure 11 Russian-made Su-35S ‘Flanker-E’ multirole fighter jets for the Indonesia Air Force (TNI-AU) with the first aircraft slated for delivery in 2018.

“There will be 11 planes. After two years, it was finally finalized,” the minister told reporters last week. The defense minister’s Su-35 statement follows the Indonesian Air Force’s recent

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of the beginning of the second phase of its 2014-2019 upgrade plan.

It remains unclear whether a Su-35 contract has already been signed by Moscow and Jakarta. The minister’s announcement was preceded by media reports that Indonesia and Russia have finally agreed to an offset obligation program including technology transfers in early July.

Russia is expected to grant Indonesia a loan for the purchase of the military aircraft. The Indonesian defense ministry budgeted a total of $1.5 billion for the purchase of up to 16 new fighter jets. The defense minister neither revealed the price for the 11 Su-35s nor whether the contract contains an option to purchase five additional Su-35 fighter jets at a fixed price in the future.

In June, Russian officials were optimistic that a final contract would be signed by the end of 2017. “Prior consent has been reached on the contract to deliver Su-35 to Indonesia, it will be (signed) this year,” Viktor Kladov, the director of Rostec’s international cooperation and regional policy department told reporters last month. Moscow and Jakarta have been in negotiations over a possible aircraft deal since late 2015, as I

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elsewhere:

A joint military-technical cooperation commission began talks in late in November 2015 in Jakarta to discuss details of the contract, including technological transfers. (Indonesian law stipulates that at least 35 percent of the aircraft’s technology needs to be transferred to the country as part of the defense deal.)

The Su-35 (NATO reporting name: Flanker-E) Fourth++ generation, highly maneuverable multirole fighter jets, powered by two 117S turbofan engines, and equipped with the Irbis-E passive-electronically scanned-array radar capable of tracking up to 30 targets simultaneously and purportedly able to engage up to eight.

The Su-35 is the latest variant of Russia’s Flanker-series. The TNI-AU is already operating five Russian-made Su-27s and 11 Su-30 MK/MK2s. The Su-35 will replace U.S.-made F5 E/F Tiger II jet fighter jets, which had been in service with the TNI-AU since the 1980s and were retired over the last years.

By 2018, Indonesia’s Air Force is slated to induct ten more F-16A/Bs fighter jets in addition to the 14 currently in service purchased from the United States under a $750 million Excess Defense Articles (EDA) contract. Jakarta is also funding 20 percent of development cost for the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) KFX next-generation fighter.

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South-Korean company Daewoo Shipbuilding delivered the first South-Korean made sub to Indonesia

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., a major shipyard, handed over a 1,400-ton diesel-electric submarine to the Indonesian navy on Wednesday, becoming the first South Korean company to export a submarine.

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Jura said:

now noticed (dated July 31, 2017)
Confirmed: Indonesia to Buy 11 Su-35 Fighter Jets From Russia

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Indonesian state-owned trading company PT Perusahaan Perdagangan and Russian state-owned company Rostec have signed a memorandum of understanding to barter Indonesian agricultural commodities for Russian jet fighters.

“The barter deal, which is under the supervision of the two governments, will involve 11 Sukhoi SU-35 jet fighters and several commodities like coffee, palm oil, tea and others,” Trade Minister Enggartiasto “Enggar” Lukita said in a statement on Friday.

Enggar, who is on an official visit to Russia from Aug. 3 to 5, expressed his hope that the agreement would be followed by other agreements in other sectors.

Russia currently faces economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union. In response, Russia has limited imports from the US and EU and is looking to other countries for commodity imports.

“It is an opportunity we have to seize. The great potential for economic cooperation during the embargo and counter embargo goes beyond trade and investment issues. We also have the opportunity to enhance cooperation in tourism, student exchange, energy, technology, aviation, etc.,” Enggar added.

Trade between Indonesia and Russia in 2016 amounted to US$2.11 billion – with Indonesia posting a surplus of $411 million – compared to $1.9 billion in 2015. Indonesian non-oil exports to Russia grew by 8.50 percent in the last five years to a value of $1.3 billion in 2016, while Indonesian exports from January to May this year grew by 54.43 percent to $1.12 billion.

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South-Korean company Daewoo Shipbuilding delivered the first South-Korean made sub to Indonesia

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., a major shipyard, handed over a 1,400-ton diesel-electric submarine to the Indonesian navy on Wednesday, becoming the first South Korean company to export a submarine.

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Jura said:

... (won't repost the texts as I feel there's close-to-zero interest in this topic here): ...

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Jura said:

will comment just on the numbers: Government claims to have killed about 500 (wanted to say ISILs ... let's call them Insurgents), and lost about 100 KIA, during the last two months; it also claims about seventy (70) Insurgents are still holding up in Marawi
I suspect at least one of these numbers is off

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The cost of keeping Marawi City free from the Islamic State (IS) is now P3 billion.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters on the sidelines of a forum on the Marawi crisis and martial law at the National Defense College of the Philippines (NDCP) that the Army alone had already spent P1.3 billion in its operations against the Maute Group, a homegrown terror gang that swore fealty to IS.

“I think we have spent P2.5 billion to P3 billion since the beginning,” Lorenzana said.

“Hopefully, we can ask Congress to replenish those funds which were taken from other projects,” he added, estimating the total operational costs incurred by the Army, Navy and Air Force in Marawi.

He told reporters that more funds for equipment, ammunition, night vision goggles and bullet proof vests were needed.

Lorenzana said that based on the assessment of military ground commanders, the Marawi war could continue for another one or two months.


No rush

“But the President said that the military need not hasten the resolution of the conflict because we will lose more soldiers if we hurry it up,” he said.

“Also we do not want those trapped in ground zero to get killed,” he added.

Lorenzana said he planned to ask Congress to raise the budget for the defense department to boost intelligence gathering operations through new equipment, particularly drones with facial recognition capability.

The United States recently donated a Cessna aircraft with ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) capability to the Philippines. It was a “big help,” Lorenzana said.

The Department of Budget and Management had already set aside P20 billion for the rehabilitation of the besieged city.

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the rehabilitation fund would be released in three tranches until 2019—P5 billion this year, P10 billion in 2018 and P5 billion in 2019.

But Diokno said additional funds could be infused in 2019 depending on the need.


Sources of funds

The additional funds, he said, could come from foreign donors and the budgets of different government agencies, including the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The rehabilitation fund was set aside following the creation of Task Force Bangon Marawi, spearheaded by the DPWH and tapped to create a master plan to reconstruct Marawi.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III also raised the possibility of issuing P30 billion-worth of debt securities or “patriotic bonds” to help fund reconstruction efforts in Marawi.

Dominguez tasked national treasurer Rosalia de Leon with studying details of the bonds.

The military said IS followers holed up in Marawi were still alive and in the war zone.

Capt. Jo-ann Petinglay, spokesperson for Joint Task Force Marawi, said brothers Omar and Abdullah Maute and Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon were still leading their men inside the 1-square-kilometer area where the fighting was concentrated.

Hapilon is acknowledged as IS head in Mindanao.

Petinglay said IS leaders and gunmen used tunnels to hide and evade military air strikes.

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