FMT:
Indonesia confirms buying used fighter jets for US$800mil
The deal is criticised by lawmakers who say the planes are too old.
Indonesia’s defence ministry said purchasing the Qatari Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets was a fast way to upgrade its air force. (AFP pic)
JAKARTA: Indonesia confirmed today it had bought 12 Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets previously used by Qatar, defending the nearly US$800 million deal as a fast way to upgrade the air force after it was criticised by lawmakers who said the planes were too old.
The defence ministry said in a statement that Indonesia had signed the deal for €733 million (US$792 million) with Excalibur International a.s., a unit of Czech defence company Czechoslovak Group (CSG) in January. The planes would be delivered within 24 months of that date.
The deal, for nine jets with single seats and three with double seats, was first reported earlier today by Indonesian media, who quoted lawmakers raising doubts about it.
“What is so urgent that we had to buy used and old jets?” the newspaper Kompas quoted lawmaker Tubagus Hasanuddin as saying.
According to the website of manufacturer Dassault Aviation, the model was first launched in 1967.
The ministry did not mention the age of the jets. It said they will come with three years of support service and pilot training.
“Indonesia needs fighter jets that could be delivered quickly to cover for the decline of combat readiness in the Indonesian air force’s fleet,” Edwin Adrian Sumantha, spokesman for the defence ministry, said in a statement.
The country has long been seeking to overhaul its ageing air fleet which includes US-made F-16 and Russian Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-30 jets.
The ministry said plans to replace its F-5 Tiger jets with Su-35 had been hampered by US sanctions on Russia, adding that Jakarta has other plans to upgrade its fleet but that will take some time.
Indonesia announced plans to purchase 11 Su-35 jets from Russia in 2017, which it had intended to pay with cash and Indonesian commodities.
The country secured a deal to order 42 Rafale fighter jets for US$8.1 billion in February. A planned purchase of F-15 fighter jets is also in advanced stages and awaiting final sign-off from the government, defence minister Prabowo Subianto said last year.
JAKARTA: Indonesia confirmed today it had bought 12 Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets previously used by Qatar, defending the nearly US$800 million deal as a fast way to upgrade the air force after it was criticised by lawmakers who said the planes were too old.
The defence ministry said in a statement that Indonesia had signed the deal for €733 million (US$792 million) with Excalibur International a.s., a unit of Czech defence company Czechoslovak Group (CSG) in January. The planes would be delivered within 24 months of that date.
The deal, for nine jets with single seats and three with double seats, was first reported earlier today by Indonesian media, who quoted lawmakers raising doubts about it.
“What is so urgent that we had to buy used and old jets?” the newspaper Kompas quoted lawmaker Tubagus Hasanuddin as saying.
According to the website of manufacturer Dassault Aviation, the model was first launched in 1967.
The ministry did not mention the age of the jets. It said they will come with three years of support service and pilot training.
“Indonesia needs fighter jets that could be delivered quickly to cover for the decline of combat readiness in the Indonesian air force’s fleet,” Edwin Adrian Sumantha, spokesman for the defence ministry, said in a statement.
The country has long been seeking to overhaul its ageing air fleet which includes US-made F-16 and Russian Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-30 jets.
The ministry said plans to replace its F-5 Tiger jets with Su-35 had been hampered by US sanctions on Russia, adding that Jakarta has other plans to upgrade its fleet but that will take some time.
Indonesia announced plans to purchase 11 Su-35 jets from Russia in 2017, which it had intended to pay with cash and Indonesian commodities.
The country secured a deal to order 42 Rafale fighter jets for US$8.1 billion in February. A planned purchase of F-15 fighter jets is also in advanced stages and awaiting final sign-off from the government, defence minister Prabowo Subianto said last year.
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kt comments:
I recall recommending the purchase of 2nd hand Mirage 2000 from Qatar almost 10 years ago in a letter to Malaysiakini - see MKINI's
June 01, 2019
Future of RMAF fighter force (01 June 2019), an extract of which reads:In my 2015 post I recommended against buying the Rafales, not because it's not a good aircraft (in fact it's bloody good) but because of its expensiveness we couldn't afford the numbers required. I had written:
Our air force should not purchase the Rafale aircraft UNLESS we have the money to buy 100 of them, and also to purchase AEW aircraft and more refueling tankers. Sixteen (16) Rafales will only be fooling ourselves about their meaningful usefulness within the national air defence context.
Thus we should of course look for cheaper options, perhaps even used aircraft like the Dassault Mirage 2000-5 MK II from France, Qatar, UAE and Greece as these countries are changing to Rafales or other equivalents - here’s our chance to grab them for cheap.
Mirage 2000-5
The Mirage 2000-5 MK II may comparatively be just a wee dated but with upgrading and weapon enhancements by the company Dassault, it can be a credible weapon platform for the RMAF, and it costs only a fifth or quarter of the Rafale, meaning we could get 80 re-conditioned but upgraded Mirage 2000-5 MK II for the same amount of money we may be thinking of spending on a mere 16 Rafales.
The operative word is QUANTITY because we have a very large country, from Kangar to Tawau (ever heard of this town?), and we need around one hundred fighter aircraft. The 80 Mirage 2000-5 MK II will be a good start.
Just food for thought, on Oct 8, 1996, a Hellenic Air Force Mirage 2000-5 shot down a Turkish Air Force F-16D, the type Singapore has [grin].
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