SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

APLN member Natalie Sambhi was quoted in the South China Morning Post, commenting on how Indonesia might be weighing up China’s offer of diesel electric submarines.

Natalie Sambhi, executive director of independent think tank Verve Research and a lecturer at Deakin University, Australian War College, said Indonesian defence and military decision-makers typically preferred advanced American and European weaponry despite their higher prices.

Natalie pointed out that during president-elect Prabowo Subianto’s tenure as defence minister since November 2019, he showed a preference for such weapon systems, particularly French-made fighter jets and submarines.

To incorporate the new Chinese submarines into Indonesia’s weapons portfolio could present challenges, analysts say, particularly with interoperability between the different national platforms.

“Adding another national supplier to a sub-surface fleet already composed of German and Korean submarines and, in the future, French submarines [could result in] increasing the costs to crew, operate and maintain,” Natalie said.

There was also the question of quality regarding the Chinese submarines on offer, said Anastasia, noting the French-built Scorpene Evolved submarines have significantly greater range and endurance compared with the Chinese SSK models.

Defence ties between Indonesia and China were non-existent during the New Order era under the anti-communist Suharto regime when Indonesia froze diplomatic relations with China from 1967 to 1990, analysts say.

Indonesia’s military has deep ties with the West, with generations of Indonesian personnel training with their American counterparts and attending US-based military schools and exchange programmes, Natalie said.

“Owing to the New Order’s deliberate lean away from China, the Indonesian military has not enjoyed the same level of interaction with the People’s Liberation Army,” she added.

The original article can be accessed here.

Image: Wikimedia Commons