Thales, PT Len to upgrade Indonesian corvettes

KRI Diponegoro (pictured above) and the Indonesian Navy's three other Diponegoro (Sigma)-class corvettes will be upgraded with Thales' TACTICOS Baseline 2 CMS and the NS50 radar. (US Navy)

The Indonesian Navy's (Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Laut: TNI-AL's) four Diponegoro-class corvettes will be equipped with the Thales' TACTICOS Baseline 2 combat management system (CMS) and the Naval Smarter (NS) 50 radar, the company confirmed to Janes.

The upgradation will take place under a contract signed in early November between Thales and Indonesia's state-owned defence electronics firm PT Len Industri to refurbish the integrated mission system of the TNI-AL's four Diponegoro-class vessels.

With this contract, the TACTICOS Baseline 2 will be operational on the TNI-AL's SIGMA 10514 Perusak Kawal Rudal (PKR) guided-missile frigates, the Bung Tomo-class corvettes, and now the Diponegoro-class vessels, Olivier Rabourdin, country director for Thales in Indonesia told Janes on 15 November.

According to Janes data, the TACTICOS Baseline 2 introduces the MOC Mk 4 consoles, a workflow-oriented human-machine interface (HMI) model that offers improved decision support to the operator, a collaboration wall featuring large screen displays as well as new environmental cabinets, central processing, switching, storage, and interface boxes.

Under the contract with PT Len, the four Diponegoro-class vessels will also be equipped with the Thales' NS50 radar, a spokesperson for Thales confirmed to Janes on 21 November.

Rabourdin told Janes that the four Diponegoro-class vessels “will receive a short- to medium-range AESA [active electronically scanned array] air and surface surveillance radar”.

The radar “not only provides bearing, range, and elevation [3D] information, but also provides in-depth analysis of the target's doppler and ten times more time on target [the 4th dimension] by applying dual-axis multibeam processing”, Rabourdin said.