I have always said from the very beginning, Kemenkeu is too powerful and that is bad
Imagine having a wallet that can talk back against you, and control your own money, that's basically Kemenkeu
From Kemenkeu perspective; perhaps they also getting tired of inconsistency, inefficiency and ineffectiveness regarding planning, designing and procurring defence equipment. "Satelit Militer" is one of the example including how the former MoD "forgot" to put KFX budget into their allocation. I am not defending them, just trying to give different perspective
Retire the Hawks, induct the Mirages.
yea, I like the idea.
Kemenhan, No love for more FA-50 ?
They will get more of it, well at least they already plan to. The last 6 ordered was ahead of schedule due to certain issues. IMHO
RTAF has the higher chance in F35 procurements
Nope, when you have other non NATO or shall we say west adversary defense equipment that can track F35 via GCI, warship, etc, there wont be any F35 for them
The problem isn't just the defense budget, but the way it is spend
Yup
Anyway, we should stick to the original Rafale + F-15 + KF-21, with the planned optimal number of airframes, I think you guys agree with me on this.
Yes and No. Keep in mind that sometime the procurement have excessive outside influence, we can create perfect plan but in our case overseas pressure can sometime be too overwhelming an too risky to ignore. Eastern def equipt at earlier stage of Bung Karno, East & West def equipt during late stage (end after JFK), Pak Harto west equipt era during his term, the plan to induct Sukhoi fleet before his term end, the west sanction on def equip, the first Sukhoi arrival in ibu Mega era, and so on. See the big picture here?
The jaman now era; Additional F16 & Sukhoi plan got thrown away due to outside pressure. US via CAATSA and the "plan" to drop F16 out of the picture due to overwhelming pressure not to induct eastern block equipment raise a question on US commitment to fully support our Defense build. Rejection of F35 confirm the US stand toward our nation.
Current world geopolitic dictate our procurement toward more "neutral" and less-risk nation (political stand point) but still can be rely upon political support and technology advancement. The good relation and the statement above put Franco on the top of the list.
And No, we wont drop the Sukhoi anytime soon, Sukhoi fleet is the only fleet with more complete missiles armament compare to their western born fleet sisters. We will have it until other fighters have more or less the same munition type as the Sukhoi. Not even EX would perform well if we dont have or not allowed to have the same munitions as our friend down under right?
Lastly, I am not defending anyone or anything, I am just throwing my 5 cents to give different perspective. Mirage as interim would be good and can only be good IF we induct Rafale as planned (number wise). Perhaps the plan is to leave F16 as it is until they retired and to have Franco-US Mixture (KF21 & T50i)-Sukhoi/EX. Beside the financial burden to get EX, the type of muntions allowed are also being considered, and this going to be heavily related on how we perform our foreign policy. Keep in mind that foreign politcy is based upon our own national interest, and no nation in this world is going to be happy if their own national interest being dictate by others.