US and Indonesian combine long-range rockets and jet strikes in Super Garuda Shield 2026 exercise.

U.S. and Indonesian forces completed a combined joint land-strike live-fire sequence at Baturaja Combat Training Center on September 7, 2026, as part of Exercise Super Garuda Shield 2026. The operation integrated U.S. Army M142 HIMARS, Indonesian Astros II Mk6, and RM-70 Vampire rocket systems alongside AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and F-16 fighters. The Next Generation Command and Control system synchronized these multi-domain assets to coordinate variable ranges, ballistic trajectories, and airspace safety within a single targeting cycle.

The Baturaja firing package linked long-range precision fires extending up to 499 kilometers with high-volume unguided saturation rockets capable of delivering 240 rounds in 20 seconds. Operational synchronization across 5,000 participating multinational personnel validated automated sensor-to-shooter data exchange across disparate ground and air weapon platforms.

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During Super Garuda Shield 2026, U.S. and Indonesian forces completed a combined live-fire exercise that included M142 HIMARS, Astros II, and RM-70 Vampire rocket launchers, with Apache helicopters and F-16 fighters through the Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) network. (Picture source: US DoD)

On September 7, 2026, U.S. and Indonesian forces completed a combined joint land-strike exercise at Baturaja Combat Training Center, South Sumatra, following live fires on September 4 and 7 during Super Garuda Shield 2026. The firing package combined U.S. Army M142 HIMARS with Indonesian Army Astros II Mk6 and Indonesian Marine Corps RM-70 Vampire rocket launchers, Indonesian F-16 fighters, and U.S. and Indonesian AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. The Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) system was also used for rapid data exchange and fires synchronization, connecting weapons whose maximum engagement ranges extend from tens of kilometers to 499 km.

The resulting force therefore covered several distinct functions: the RM-70 for concentrated volume, the ASTROS for scalable fires, the HIMARS for guided long-range attack, the Apache for persistent sensor-to-shooter engagements, and the F-16 for fast strike from changing attack axes, as the NGC2 provided the system needed to allocate those different effects within one targeting cycle. Elements of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division, Iowa Army National Guard, and Marine Rotational Force-Darwin also participated alongside Indonesian units. Super Garuda Shield 2026 ran from August 31 to September 11 across Bandung, Baturaja, Lampung, and other Indonesian training areas, with approximately 5,000 personnel and participation by Indonesia, the United States, and 13 partner countries.

The exercise series has evolved from a 2007 bilateral U.S.-Indonesian Army training into a multinational joint event incorporating command-and-control, airborne, amphibious, maritime, aviation, and combined arms activities. Scale has remained in the several-thousand-person range: more than 5,000 personnel participated in 2023, the 2024 iteration reached 6,946 personnel, including 4,732 Indonesians and 2,500 Americans, and approximately 6,500 personnel from 13 participating countries took part in 2025. Baturaja is particularly suited to the land component because it can support maneuver and live-fire exercises at formation level. The 2026 strike sequence also moved beyond simultaneous national firing by requiring U.S. and Indonesian command elements to coordinate different rocket calibers, ballistic envelopes, aviation operating areas, and target assignments within the same engagement process. 

For this exercise, the M142 HIMARS, provided by the U.S. Army, was the ground asset with the longest range. The 16.25-tonne, 6.94-m-long 6×6 launcher carries one pod containing six 227 mm rockets, one ATACMS or two PrSMs, is operated by three personnel, reaches 94 km/h, and has a 480 km road range, thanks to its 330 hp Caterpillar 3116 ATAAC engine. Standard M30/M31 GMLRS rockets reach 92 km, the ER GMLRS extends this range beyond 150 km, the ATACMS reaches 300 km, and the PrSM has a 60 to 499 km engagement envelope. In terms of payload, the M31 uses a 91 kg unitary warhead, while the M30A1/A2 substitutes an alternative warhead containing approximately 182,000 preformed tungsten fragments for use against personnel, lightly protected equipment and dispersed targets. A six-round GMLRS load therefore provides only 15% of the RM-70's 40-round ready-to-launch capacity, but each rocket combines substantially greater range with precision guidance.

The HIMARS is also C-130 transportable, allowing a launcher to be moved by tactical airlift rather than relying exclusively on road movement between firing areas. For its part, the Astros II Mk6 gives Indonesia a considerably greater ammunition flexibility from a single launcher. The Indonesian Army currently operates 63 Mk6 launchers, with 36 ordered in 2012 and 27 additional systems delivered in 2020; each uses a 27-tonne Tatra T815-7 6×6 chassis to reach a road speed of 100 to 110 km/h and a driving range of nearly 500 km. This Brazilian launcher can carry 32 SS-30 127 mm rockets reaching 9 to 30 km, 16 SS-40/40G 180 mm rockets reaching 15 to 40 km, four SS-60 300 mm rockets reaching 20 to 60 km, four SS-80-series rockets reaching as far as 90 km, four 450 mm SS-150s reaching 29 to 150 km, or two 450 mm AV-TM 300 missiles reaching 30 to 300 km. In those, the guided SS-40G and SS-80G represent two precision options between the unguided rocket and missile categories.

A battery normally combines six AV-LMU launchers and three AV-RMD reload vehicles with AV-PCC command, AV-UCF fire-control, AV-MET meteorological, and AV-OFVE maintenance vehicles. With the SS-30, six launchers represent 192 ready-to-fire rockets in a battery; with the AV-TM 300, the same six launchers carry 12 missiles able to reach 300 km. Lastly, the RM-70 provides the Indonesian Marine Corps with a different effect: short-range mass rather than small numbers of long-range guided strikes. Each launcher carries 40 122 mm tubes, compared with six ready-to-fire rockets on the HIMARS, 32 with an Astros SS-30 load, 16 with SS-40s, and four with SS-60s, SS-80s, or SS-150s. Moreover, the original RM-70 additionally carries 40 reload rockets on its Tatra 813 8×8 chassis, giving 80 rounds available aboard one vehicle; its hydraulic system can reload the launcher from this reserve in less than two minutes.

Rockets leave the tubes at 0.5-second intervals, so all 40 can be launched in 20 seconds. One salvo distributes effects across approximately 150 × 200 m, or 30,000 m², while six launchers firing 240 rockets can cover approximately 700 × 700 m, or 490,000 m². The newer Vampire retains the 40-tube 122 mm launcher but moves it to a modern Tatra 817-series chassis with computerized fire control and navigation. Its value in the Baturaja combination was therefore quantitative: the RM-70 could fire 240 projectiles from six launchers before reload, compared with 36 GMLRS rockets from six HIMARS or 24 300 mm rockets from six ASTROS launchers carrying four-round loads. In the air, Indonesia's F-16 fighters introduced speed, altitude and movable weapon release geometry that ground artillery cannot reproduce.

The F-16 measures 15.06 m long with a 9.96-m wingspan, has a Mach 2 maximum speed, operates above 50,000 ft and reaches a maximum takeoff weight of approximately 19 tonnes in later configurations. Indonesia's force totals 33 aircraft across the F-16A/B and F-16C/D families, including 26 single-seat and seven two-seat aircraft. The fighter carries an internal 20-mm M61A1 six-barrel cannon and can use external stations for air-to-air missiles, conventional and precision-guided bombs, air-to-surface weapons, targeting pods and external fuel. At Mach 0.8, an F-16 covers approximately 15 km per minute, compared with less than 2 km per minute for a 100 km/h artillery truck, allowing the aviation component to shift between geographically separated target areas on a timescale unavailable to HIMARS, ASTROS or RM-70 launchers. Its principal contribution to a joint fires network is therefore not another nominal range figure, but the ability to move the weapon release point rapidly and approach a target from an axis independent of ground launcher positions. 

Additionally, the AH-64 Apache helicopter occupied the lower-speed but more persistent end of the aviation layer. The attack helicopter is approximately 17.7 m long with rotors turning, has a 14.63 m main rotor and reaches a maximum takeoff weight of approximately 10.4 tonnes in later configurations; maximum speed is about 293 km/h and cruise speed about 265 km/h. Twin T700-GE-701D engines each provide 2,000 shp, the M230 30 mm chain gun carries up to 1,200 rounds, and four wing stations accept AGM-114 Hellfire missiles and 70 mm rocket pods, including Hydra ammunition and guided 70 mm weapons such as APKWS where integrated. A dedicated anti-armor load can consequently combine 16 Hellfire missiles with 1,200 cannon rounds, while a covering force configuration can carry eight Hellfires, 38 rockets and the full cannon load.

In terms of sensors, the TADS/PNVS and Arrowhead provide electro-optical and infrared acquisition, and Longbow-equipped units integrate the AN/APG-78 fire control radar. Unlike an artillery launcher receiving coordinates for a fire mission, an Apache can search, identify, track, and engage targets, then remain in the area to reassess the target or engage another contact. Consequently, the Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2) is operationally important because this force package creates an allocation problem involving several differences in range, ammunition capacity, and response characteristics. A target 25 km away could potentially be engaged by RM-70s, several Astros rocket types, HIMARS, Apaches, or F-16s; at 80 km the practical ground options narrow toward the SS-80 and GMLRS, while beyond 150 km they contract further toward the AV-TM 300, ATACMS, or PrSM unless aircraft are used.

Weapon volume changes just as sharply: six RM-70s can launch 240 rockets in roughly 20 seconds, six Astros launchers can carry 192 SS-30s or only 12 AV-TM 300s, and six HIMARS carry 36 GMLRS rockets or 12 PrSMs. The command problem is consequently to assign a 30,000 m² area target, a moving vehicle, a hardened point target, and a target hundreds of kilometers deep to different shooters without wasting scarce guided ammunition or placing aircraft inside avoidable threat envelopes. In the exercise, the NGC2 likely connected target detection, identification, target-quality coordinates, engagement authorization, and weapon assignment so that range, warhead, ammunition state, time-to-target, and airspace can determine the shooter.

In that structure, the RM-70 supplies rocket volume, the Astros provides scalable effects, the HIMARS extends precision fires to 499 km, the Apache combines persistent sensing and direct engagement, and the F-16 moves the strike axis at several hundred kilometers per hour. Super Garuda Shield 2026 therefore tested whether these different numerical advantages could be exploited as complementary engagement options rather than simply accumulating more launchers and aircraft at Baturaja.

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Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, South Korea, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.