From the Financial Times: Jakarta in missile deal with Beijing
Excerpt:
Indonesia is seeking China’s help in reviving a 41-year-old programme to build short- and medium-range missiles that could be used to replace US fighter jets grounded by a long-running arms embargo, the country’s defence minister said on Sunday.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Indonesian counterpart, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, signed a series of agreements in Beijing last week meant to flesh out an April declaration that the two had formed a “strategic partnership”…
…Indonesia’s defence minister, Juwono Sudarsono, said on Sunday that agreement was meant to help Jakarta develop propulsion and guidance systems for land- and ship-based missiles with a range of up to 150km. The plan was a revival of proposals to develop similar missiles, he said, and was intended to help Indonesia’s military diversify and end its current reliance on foreign-built fighter jets as a deterrent.
“We think it’s going to be cheaper to offer some kind of deterrence rather than relying on fighter planes,” Mr Sudarsono said.
Six of the country’s 10 F-16s are grounded as a result of a US arms embargo implemented in the 1990s because of human rights abuses by Indonesian troops in East Timor…