The U.S. has indicated it will sell F-15 and F-18 fighter jets to Indonesia following months of meetings between top defense officials from the two countries, according to a defense official in Jakarta.
U.S. Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller was in Jakarta on Monday and Tuesday to meet with Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto. During those meetings, Miller agreed to sell the two models of fighter jets to Indonesia, which has long wanted to upgrade from its aging F-16 fleet.
Indonesia has been pushing the U.S. to sell it F-15, F-18 and F-35 fighter jets, but finally agreed on only two models as the third could take up to 10 years to deliver, [Rodon Pedrason, director-general of defense strategy at Indonesia’s Defense Ministry], said.
Pedrason said the defense ministry under Subianto has a grand plan of procuring more than 100 superior fighter jets, to add to Indonesia’s current fleet of less than 60. “We’ll have around 170 fighter jets at the end of it. Extraordinary,” Pedrason said.
He did not say when the ministry hopes to achieve that target, but added Indonesia hopes to make available between $9 billion and $11 billion for new weaponry and military equipment over the next 20 years. He said Indonesia was also planning to take soft-loan offers from countries like France, Turkey, China and Russia.