Indonesia The Air Force
Elite air force paratroopers report to senior military
officer. Their Puma military helicopter waits in the background.
Courtesy Embassy of Indonesia, Washington
The Air Force of the Republic of Indonesia (AURI), like
the
navy, was also established as a separate service in 1946
and
evolved from the aviation division of the People's
Security
Forces (BKR). When it became a separate service, the air
force
had only a few pilots. Nevertheless, it assumed
responsibility
for the air defense of the republic and took over all
existing
Dutch airfields and equipment. Initially, the air force
was
fairly small and flew mostly United States- and West
Europeanorigin aircraft. However, between 1958 and 1964, the force
expanded rapidly and switched to Soviet-bloc aircraft,
purchasing
more than 100 MiG-17 fighters, Il-28 bombers, and other
aircraft
from Soviet and East European sources. Personnel strength
doubled. By the early 1960s, the Indonesian air force was
the
best equipped air arm in Southeast Asia.
The influence and capability of the air force fell
sharply
after the 1965 attempted coup. The air force was heavily
purged
for its role in the events associated with the coup
attempt, and
the abrupt turn away from the Soviet bloc ended the
significant
flow of equipment and logistics support that had been the
key to
expansion during the early 1960s. The air force's large
armada of
Soviet aircraft subsequently fell into disuse and
disrepair. At
the same time, the sharp drop in defense expenditures
initiated
under Suharto, and the anticommunist orientation of the
New Order
government, prevented the purchase of needed spare parts
and
maintenance assistance and led to the rapid grounding of
almost
all East European-made equipment. Significant
modernization did
not get under way until the late 1970s with acquisition of
the F5 and A-4 aircraft from the United States.
In 1992 air force strength was about 27,000.
Approximately
4,000 of these personnel formed four battalions of "quick
action"
paratroopers. The structure of the air force consisted of
a
headquarters staff in Jakarta supporting the chief of
staff, two
subordinate commands (Air Matériel Command and Air
Training
Command), and three operational commands (Ko-Op I, Ko-Op
II, and
the National Air Defense Command). The Air Matériel
Command was
headquartered in Bandung, Jawa Barat Province, and the Air
Training Command was in Surabaya, Jawa Timur Province.
Indonesia's air operations were divided into two area
commands
with Jakarta being the east/west dividing point. The
largest of
the operational commands was Ko-Op II, headquartered in
Ujungpandang, Sulawesi Selatan Province, and responsible
for all
air force operations east of Jakarta (including
Kalimantan). KoOp I, headquartered in Jakarta, covered air force
operations west
of Jakarta. The National Air Defense Command, also
headquartered
in Jakarta, had operational control over all fighter and
counterinsurgency aircraft.
Most of the major weapons systems operated by the air
force
were manufactured in the United States and consisted of
the C-130
Hercules, OV-10F Bronco, F-5E Tiger II, and A-4E Skyhawk
(see
table 33, Appendix). The air force also operated several
B-737
aircraft for maritime reconnaissance. In 1990 the air
force took
delivery of the twelve F-16 Fighting Falcons purchased
from the
United States, which were based at Iswahyudi Air Base,
Jawa Timur
Province. During the modernization period of the 1980s,
the air
force also purchased the Automated Logistics Management
System
(ALMS) from the United States to upgrade its ability to
track and
requisition spare parts and materials.
In 1980 the air force enunciated a forward defense
strategy
that required building or upgrading air bases throughout
Indonesia as well as main bases on Java. Most of those
upgrades
involved civilian airfields also used by the air force. A
major
upgrade at Ranai Air Base on Natuna Island provided a base
for
improved surveillance of the South China Sea. Iswahyudi
Air Base
was upgraded to enable it to handle modern jet fighter
aircraft.
In 1992, most airfield upgrade programs had been started
but most
combat aircraft were still based on Java. The exception
was one
squadron of A-4 aircraft at Pekanbaru Air Base, Riau
Province,
and another at Hasanuddin Air Base near Ujungpandang.
Pilots generally began flight instruction in
propeller-driven
T-34 Turbo-Mentors. A squadron of British Aerospace T-53
Hawks
was used for advanced training. However, competition with
higher
paying civilian airlines led to a continuing shortfall of
pilots
and aviation support personnel. To remedy the situation,
the air
force announced in 1981 that male and female senior high
school
graduates would be accepted for expense-free training as
shortterm aviation officers. Graduates of the two-year program
would
serve ten years in the air force and then be released to
find
employment in the civilian sphere.
Data as of November 1992
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