INDONESIA SEALS $300 MILLION DEAL TO BUY DRONES FROM TÜRKIYE

Wed 02 August 2023:

Indonesia has bought 12 new drones from Turkish Aerospace worth $300 million, its Defence Ministry said on Tuesday, the latest in a series of purchases aimed at modernising the country’s ageing military equipment, Reuters reports.

The deal comes after Indonesian President, Joko Widodo, in July warned his cabinet to maintain a “healthy” budget as he highlighted outsized spending by the country’s security agencies, including the Defence Ministry.

In January, Defence Minister, Prabowo Subianto, sealed an $800-million deal to buy 12 Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets, which drew criticism as they were considered too old. Indonesia, in February, also bought 42 Rafale fighter jets for $8.1 billion, which will be disbursed in phases over several years.

At 134.3 trillion rupiah ($8.89 billion), the Defence Ministry has the biggest allocation from the country’s total budget this year, according to government data.

The deal with Ankara-based Turkish Aerospace was finalised in February and the drones are expected to be delivered within 32 months of the signing. It also includes training and flight simulators, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

The statement did not clarify which drones have been agreed on, but media reports cited TAI General Manager Temel Kotil as saying that the agreement would cover the company’s Anka combat UAVs.

Indonesia earlier expressed its interest in the medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) class drone, with all-weather day and night reconnaissance abilities, target detection and identification, and intelligence missions, featuring autonomous flight capability, including automatic takeoff and landing.

It can remain in the air for up to 30 hours and boasts a 250-kilometer (155.34-mile) firing range capacity.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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