Indonesia delays buying used fighter jets, citing fiscal limits

JAKARTA - The Indonesian government has delayed a plan to purchase 12 Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets previously used by Qatar, due to limited fiscal capacity, a spokesman for the defence minister said.

Mr Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak made the comments in a panel interview with broadcaster TV One earlier this week, saying that the delay was decided by the defence and finance ministries.

“The government... has delayed the purchase of Mirage jets because our fiscal capacity, for the time being, cannot support such purchase,” he said, adding that the military would order a retrofit for its existing Sukhoi and F16 aircraft instead.

Mr Dahnil, as well as spokesmen for the defence and finance ministries, did not respond to Reuters’ request for comments.

Indonesia inked a deal with a unit of Czech defence company Czechoslovak Group to buy 12 Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets in January 2023, valued at €733 million (S$1 billion), the Defence Ministry said in 2023.

The second-hand jets were set to be delivered within 24 months after the deal was signed.

They were intended to be used while Indonesia waits for the arrival of some of

the 42 Rafale fighter jets that Jakarta had bought in 2022

for US$8.1 billion (S$10.8 billion).

The plan to buy the Mirage planes has been criticised by some lawmakers because the jets were considered old.

The decision to delay the Mirage purchase came despite President Joko Widodo's approval of a 20 per cent increase in defence spending to US$25 billion to the end of 2024, to upgrade military hardware.

Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, the front runner for presidential elections due in February, has overseen the military's efforts to modernise its ageing fleet, which include purchases of 12 new drones from Turkish Aerospace and fighter jets and transport helicopters from US companies Boeing and Lockheed Martin. REUTERS