Indonesia has no money for French fighters

The Indonesian Ministry of Defense does not have the funds to finance an agreement concluded with France in February 2022 for the acquisition of 42 Dassault Rafale fighters, according to CNBC Indonesia. The cost of deliveries under this agreement is estimated at $7 billion, excluding weapons. Only the purchase of the first batch of six aircraft is formally secured by $1.1 billion in funding from the Indonesian Ministry of Defense 2021 budget. The country needs $5.9 billion in foreign loans to finance the rest of the Rafale procurement program, but the sources of such loans are not available. defined. As a result, the contract with France has not yet entered into force and as of June 2022, the order for 42 Rafale for Indonesia was not listed in the Dassault Aviation order book, the portal reports.

Indonesia previously planned to purchase Russian Su-35 fighters, and in 2018 a contract was signed for the supply of 11 aircraft worth $1.154 billion, of which about half ($570 million) was planned to be paid by counter deliveries of palm oil and other Indonesian goods. However, Indonesia subsequently abandoned the deal, citing financial difficulties. But, according to a source in the system of military-technical cooperation, the main reason was pressure on Indonesia from the United States, where by that time the anti-Russian sanctions law CAATSA had come into force, threatening buyers of Russian weapons with secondary sanctions.