Indonesia eyes American F-16 jets as it moves to secure Russian Su-35 deal

MELBOURNE, Australia — Indonesia is looking to acquire two squadrons of new F-16 fighter jets from the United States, even as it pushes ahead with plans to buy Russian Sukhoi Su-35s, according to the chief of the Indonesian Air Force.

In remarks carried by state-owned national news agency Antara on Oct. 28, Air Marshal Yuyu Sutisna said the southeast Asian nation plans to submit a request to buy two squadrons of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 72 fighters by January 2020.

Sutisna said the F-16 acquisition will be part of Indonesia’s next five-year strategic plan, running from 2020-2024, Antara reported. The officer made the announcement during a visit to Roesmin Nurjadin Airbase in Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau Province on the western Indonesian island of Sumatra.

He did not elaborate on the exact number of F-16s Indonesia plans to buy, as that will depend on how much money the government can set aside for the acquisition, which will be collected separately from the already allocated defense budget of $7.7 billion.

Sustina also said Indonesia is still pursuing the Russian Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker interceptor, although that effort has encountered several delays. The Su-35s are earmarked as a replacement for Indonesia’s Northrop F-5E/F interceptors, which are no longer in service.

The already-protracted contract negotiations with Russia are further complicated by Indonesia’s concerns over CAATSA, an American law that could apply a variety of sanctions to individuals and organizations that engage in “transactions with the intelligence or defense sectors of the Russian Federation.”

Indonesia is seeking 11 Su-35s from Russia and hopes to pay for these with both cash and the exchange of a variety of local commodities .

Indonesia’s Air Force operates Su-27SKs and Su-30MK2s acquired earlier this decade from Russia. Indonesia has a policy of diversifying its arms purchases to reduce over-reliance on a single source of supply.

The island nation also operates earlier versions of the F-16, with 18 single-seat F-16Cs and five two-seater F-16Ds delivered under the Peace Bima Sena II program. The jets are used by the Air Force’s 3 and 16 squadrons alongside Block 15 F-16A/B aircraft, of which eight were acquired in the 1980s.

The F-16C/Ds are former U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard aircraft that were in storage and subsequently offered to Indonesia in 2011 under the U.S. Excess Defense Articles program. Indonesian Air Force engineers are locally upgrading the F-16A/Bs with assistance from Lockheed Martin.

The 24 jets were upgraded with the installation of a new modular mission computer, Link 16 data links and a self-protection suite under a Foreign Military Sales package worth $750 million before delivery to Indonesia, although one was subsequently destroyed in a fire in 2015 after running off the runway during its takeoff roll .

Mike Yeo is the Asia correspondent for Defense News.

澳大利亚墨尔本——据印尼空军司令称，印尼正寻求从美国采购两个中队的新型F-16战斗机，同时还在推进购买俄罗斯苏霍伊Su-35战斗机的计划。

据安塔拉通讯社10月28日报道，空军元帅尤尤·苏蒂斯纳表示，这个东南亚国家计划在2020年1月之前提交购买两个中队的洛克希德·马丁F-16 Block 72战斗机的请求。

据安塔拉通讯社报道，苏蒂斯纳表示，采购F-16战斗机将是印尼下一个五年战略计划（2020-2024年）的一部分。这位官员是在访问位于印尼西部苏门答腊岛廖内省首府北干巴鲁的罗斯明·努尔贾丁空军基地时宣布这一消息的。

他没有详细说明印尼计划购买多少架F-16战斗机，因为这取决于政府能为此次采购拨出多少资金，这笔资金将从已拨出的77亿美元国防预算中单独筹集。

苏斯蒂纳还表示，印尼仍在推进俄罗斯苏-35“侧卫”截击战斗机的采购，尽管这一进程屡遭延误。苏-35计划用于替换印尼现役的诺斯罗普F-5E/F截击战斗机，后者已退役。

与俄罗斯之间已经旷日持久的合同谈判，又因印尼对《以制裁反击美国敌人法案》(CAATSA) 的担忧而变得更加复杂。该法案是一项美国法律，可能会对与“俄罗斯联邦情报或国防部门”进行交易的个人和组织实施各种制裁。

印度尼西亚正在向俄罗斯寻求购买 11 架苏-35 战斗机，并希望用现金和各种当地商品的交换来支付这些款项。

印尼空军装备有本世纪初从俄罗斯购入的苏-27SK和苏-30MK2战斗机。印尼奉行武器采购多元化政策，以减少对单一供应来源的过度依赖。

这个岛国也装备有早期型号的F-16战斗机，根据“和平比马塞纳二期”计划，该国接收了18架单座F-16C和5架双座F-16D。这些战机由空军第3和第16中队使用，此外还有8架Block 15型F-16A/B战斗机，其中8架是在20世纪80年代采购的。

这些F-16C/D战斗机原为美国空军和空中国民警卫队的飞机，此前一直处于封存状态，后于2011年根据美国剩余国防物资计划提供给印度尼西亚。印尼空军工程师正在洛克希德·马丁公司的协助下，对F-16A/B战斗机进行本地化升级改造。

在交付给印度尼西亚之前，这 24 架喷气式飞机根据价值 7.5 亿美元的对外军售方案进行了升级，安装了新的模块化任务计算机、Link 16 数据链和自卫套件。不过，其中一架飞机在 2015 年起飞滑跑时冲出跑道，随后被大火烧毁。

Mike Yeo 是《防务新闻》的亚洲通讯员。