PT Len, Thales partner to advance Indonesia's C5ISR capabilities

The agreement includes plans to co-develop a ‘national' combat management system (CMS) based on Thales' TACTICOS CMS. The image shows the combat information centre in the Indonesian Navy's Sigma 10514-class frigate – KRI Raden Eddy Martadinata – featuring TACTICOS CMS's latest developments such as the MOC Mk 4 consoles. (Thales Nederland)

Bandung-based state-owned defence electronics firm PT Len Industri has signed an agreement with Thales to strengthen collaboration in defence technology developments to support Indonesia's defence modernisation plans.

In a joint media release on 21 April, the companies said they “will jointly explore and further develop solutions on topics including radars, command-and-control systems (C2), military satellites, C5ISR (command, control, computers, communications, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance), electronic warfare (EW), UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), and combat management systems (CMS)”.

The companies said the collaboration will involve transfer of technology for military and civilian radars. This includes local maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) activities, and the co-development of a national C2 radar.

Under the agreement, the companies intend to co-develop a ‘national' CMS based on Thales' TACTICOS CMS that is deployed on the Indonesian Navy's KRI Usman-Harun multirole light frigate (MRLF), the companies added.

According to Janes C4ISR & Mission Systems: Maritime, the Thales TACTICOS CMS integrates all constituent parts of a combat system to deliver a fully optimised ‘system of systems' capability that meets all essential requirements for picture compilation and track management, navigation, threat evaluation and resource allocation, co-ordination of tactical assets including helicopters and watercraft, tactical information exchange, mission planning and command support, onboard training and simulation, and CMS configuration management.