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DSA 2022: Indonesian shipyards keep up tempo of naval construction
27th March 2022 - 02:18 GMT | by
Gordon Arthur in Christchurch
RSS
The Indonesian Navy commissioned its eighth landing ship tank on 8 March. It is seen here at its launch. (Photo: PT Daya Radar Utama)
Wherever possible, Indonesia is using local shipbuilders to build vessels for its disparate naval requirements.
The Indonesian Navy (TNI-AL) commissioned an additional LST of the
Teluk Bintuni class in Bandar Lampung on 8 March.
The new 120m-long vessel is named KRI
Telul Palu, with pennant number ‘523’. It is the eighth of nine LSTs built to replace older amphibious vessels, and the amphibious vessel is expected to be based in Lampung.
PT Daya Radar Utama constructed this ship, and a preceding one inducted on 12 July 2021. The final LST of a three-ship contract awarded in January 2017 should be finished this year.
Adm Yudo Morgono, Chief of the Indonesian Navy, said at the commissioning ceremony, ‘Hopefully, the presence of KRI
Teluk Palu 523 can increase the strength and capability of the navy, especially in amphibious landing operations and administration by the Military Sealift Command.’
The class is able to carry up to ten Leopard 2 tanks, one armoured bridge-layer, one transport vehicle and two helicopters simultaneously. Each LST crewed by 115 sailors can also accommodate 360 soldiers/marines, a six-person helicopter detachment.
Elsewhere, in Batam in the Riau Islands, the shipbuilder PT Karimum Anugrah Sejati held a steel-cutting and keel-laying ceremony on 4 March for the third
PC-60M patrol boat for the TNI-AL. The 60m vessel is due to be launched in May 2023, and be delivered to the 1st Fleet Command of the Indonesian Navy three months later.
The PC-60M class is based on the navy's KCR-60 missile boat, but with a naval gun rather than anti-ship missiles.
Construction of the PC-60Ms is being shared, with PT Caputra Mitra Sejati building the first pair. It started work on these in February 2020, and they were duly launched on 22 March. PT Malindo Marine is constructing the fourth PC-60M, with a steel-cutting ceremony held on 15 March.
The PC-60M project is one of nine priority programmes for the Chief of Navy. The type has a 24kt top speed and endurance of eight days. Its complement is 55, and the main armament is a single bow-mounted 40mm cannon plus two 12.7mm machine guns.
This is KRI Tarakan, the first of three locally built tankers for the TNI-AL. (Photo: TNI-AL)
PT PAL, Indonesia’s largest naval shipbuilder, is making progress on an additional hospital ship for the TNI-AL. By mid-March, it had reached a completion level of 67.58%, with 104 of 121 blocks completed. The engine, gearbox and diesel generators have been fitted too. The 7,300t vessel should be launched later this year.
This is PT PAL’s second hospital ship in this class, the first being
KRI Dr Wahidin Sudirohusodo that was commissioned on 14 January. Eventually, KRI
Semarang, a
Makassar-class LPD delivered on 21 January 2019 and acting as a temporary hospital ship, could be relieved of this role.
Given Indonesia’s susceptibility to natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis, such hospital ships provide a vitally important deployable capability.
Indonesia has also contracted two local shipyards to build three 6,274t
Tarakan-class fleet tankers for the TNI-AL. PT Dok & Perkapalan Kodja Bahari built KRI
Tarakan, while PT Batamec built KRI
Bontang (commissioned in 2020) and is currently constructing the third tanker capable of carrying 5,500m³ of fuel.
Before the 123.5m-long
Tarakan-class tankers, the Indonesian MoD awarded a contract for a smaller 99.5m tanker in December 2011. PT Anugrah Buana Marine in Banten laid the keel for the future KRI
Dumai (pennant number ‘904’) in April 2012, but the vessel was never completed for unknown reasons and its hull lies unfinished.
The navy wants to have six tankers under its Minimum Essential Force 2024 plan, so this tanker might yet be completed, perhaps followed by another two.
Wherever possible, Indonesia is using local shipbuilders to build vessels for its disparate naval requirements.
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