Indonesia holds talks with Dassault Aviation for potential Rafale acquisition

The Indonesian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has held a meeting with representatives from Dassault Aviation to discuss the possibility of acquiring Rafale multirole fighter aircraft for the Indonesian Air Force (Tentara Nasional Indonesia – Angkatan Udara: TNI-AU).

The meeting was held on 11 February in Jakarta and it was attended by Dassault Aviation’s vice-president for business development, Jean Claude Piccirillo, and vice-president for offset, Michael Paskoff, the MoD confirmed.

Heading the Indonesian delegation was Major General Dadang Hedrayudha, director general of defence potential at the MoD. The ministry provided only scant details of what was discussed but said “all parties are hopeful that discussions regarding an offset arrangement would soon come to a fruitful outcome”.

In a related development Indonesian defence minister Prabowo Subianto outlined a procurement programme for up to 36 Rafale units in the 2021 edition of a yearly publication for armed forces staff.

The minister has not given details on how the proposed acquisition will be funded but the publication, which was released in mid-February, noted that there have been offers of defence credits from several countries.

Indonesia has been considering the Rafale fighter as a replacement for its fleet of Northrop F-5E/F Tiger II aircraft since at least 2015. In March 2015 the French ambassador to Indonesia made a commitment that France would be flexible in accommodating a collaboration between Dassault and Indonesia’s PT Dirgantara should the Rafale be selected for Indoniesian requirements.