Turkish defence companies survey Indonesian warships for possible upgrade opportunities

A mock-up of Aselsan's SMASH 30 mm remote-controlled naval gun system on display at LIMA 2017 in Langkawi. (Janes/Ridzwan Rahmat)

A delegation of Turkish defence industry officials has arrived in Indonesia to survey nine Indonesian Navy (Tentara Nasional Indonesia – Angkatan Laut: TNI-AL) warships, and assess the suitability of each of the platforms for weapon upgrades.

The delegation, which consists mostly of engineers and executives from Aselsan, arrived at the headquarters of Armada II in Surabaya on 12 October for two days of surveys. Also present in the delegation are officials from defence software company, Havelsan, and Turkish shipbuilder, STM.

These surveys were followed by a meeting with state-owned shipbuilder PT PAL on 13 October, an industry source has informed Janes .

The delegation will then proceed with a visit to the headquarters of Armada in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, on 14 October to continue with its survey of the selected warships, and this will be followed by meetings with state-owned defence electronics company PT Len, and private shipbuilders PT Daya Radar Utama (DRU) and PT Tesco Indomaritim.

Documents provided to Janes indicate that the warships being surveyed are namely the TNI-AL’s entire fleet of four Diponegoro-class corvettes (365–368), three Ahmad Yani-class frigates, KRI Yos Sudarso (353), KRI Oswald Siahaan (354), KRI Abdul Halim Perdanakusuma (355), and two Bung Tomo-class corvettes, KRI Bung Tomo (357) and KRI John Lie (358).

Among the objectives of the survey are to determine the structural condition and electrical infrastructure of each warship, and to recommend if the vessels can be armed with weapons such as the Aselsan SMASH 30 mm remote-controlled weapon station (RCWS).