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| Monday, January
30, 2012, 04:24 PM |
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| Indonesian
military aims to modernize its weaponry to boost defence capacities of the
country. |
Indonesian
military has attempted to modernize its weaponry that will put it a par
with neighboring countries and boosted skills of personal as the challenges
to be faced in the future. |
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Indonesia
has had ten Sukhoi jet fighters and aimed to receive two others each year
by 2014 and several F16 war planes, but many others weaponry had been
aging. The government had added the task of the military to deter terrorism
along with police. Besides, transnational crimes and separatism in Papua
still threatened the country.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said that the government
sought to purchase military equipment from European countries suffering
from the economic crisis and may want to trim their weaponry, from which
the president expected Indonesia could buy them cheaper.
Negotiations had been done and as many as to the countries by the army
for the purchase, Army Chief of Staff General Pramono Edhie Wibowo has
said. The army chief of staff said that about 14 trillion rupiah (some
1.54 billion U.S. dollars) had been allocated for the plan for 2011 and
2012.
Among the equipment to be bought were tanks, helicopters for combat and
transport, anti-war plane equipment and others, said Wibowo.
"We have made a priority. We will buy the weaponry simultaneously,
and we expect that all the equipment that we need can be purchased by
2014," he said.
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Dutch Leopard
2A6 main battle tank (Credit photo: Army Recognition) |
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The
general said that Indonesian army's equipment were outdated and their
quality was behind neighboring countries over the last two decades.
The country also wanted to buy 100 Germany-made Leopard 2A6 tanks from
Dutch as the negotiation had been completed by both sides, but it was
still opposed by both parliaments, Indonesian Military Commander Admiral
Agus Suhartono said.
But, the admiral said that there were many other options should the plan
was failure, one of them was the Russian-made
T-90 tank.
T-90
tank has been developed from T-72
tank which is the most modern tank at the Russian navy and army. The tank
is classified to equal with the Germany-made Leaopard 2A6 tank and 2A7
tank. "In purchasing weaponry, we will see which is the best among
the option we have," said Suhartono.
On personal skill, Indonesian army aimed at boosted intelligence capability
and professionalism through education and training. "We aim to increase
the capability of intelligent unit in a bid to boost supervision, particularly
on terrorism across the nation, " the army chief of staff said. |
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