ILA 2026 – Indonesia M-346F contract to be signed in July
14/06/2026
By Alan Warnes
According to a senior PT E-Systems management source ‘the company will also integrate its own Indonesian designed Self Protection Jammer, integrate and qualify the Diehl IRIS-T short range air-to-air missile, integrate an indigenous data-link for targeting and cueing distribution, as well as an indigenous light MK-V Delta cruise missile.’
The source continued, ‘PT E-Systems Solutions will also participate in flight testing and in the qualification of Leonardo’s new ITAR-free Airborne Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Grifo E600, using the company’s own flight test bed.’
This will make the M-346Fs more capable than the 23 surviving TNI-AU F-16C/D Block 52s equipped with the older APG-68 (V) radar, acquired between 2012-18.
The M-346 procurement plans are certainly an ambitious programme, that will see the Block 20 being used in a more capable operational role than in Canada and Austria.
A contract is set to be signed by Leonardo and PT E-Systems Solutions on behalf of the Indonesian Ministry of Defence in Jakarta during early July, for the supply of 12 M-346Fs for delivery by early 2028 to replace the surviving BAE Systems Hawk Mk 109/209s delivered in the 1990s. A second tranche of 24 will be contracted in February 2027.
Full article:
There may have been no M-346 at ILA, Leonardo was still marketing the new Block 20 version of advanced jet
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