JAKARTA: The arrival of the decommissioned Marina Militare (Italian Navy) light aircraft carrier ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi at Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta on Friday marked a new era for the Indonesian navy as it projects more assertive, outward-facing naval power.
Scheduled for official transfer on Sept. 24, and to be renamed KRI Sriwijaya, the vessel will make Indonesia the second country in Southeast Asia to operate an aircraft carrier after Thailand with its HTMS Chakri Naruebet. Thailand has operated the 11,000-tonne aircraft carrier since 1997.
Indonesian Navy chief of staff Adm. Muhammad Ali has repeatedly said the vessel, officially an aircraft-carrying cruiser, would be used mostly in military operations other than war (MOOTW), especially in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) missions.
Meanwhile, President Prabowo Subianto said on Sept. 7 that the aircraft carrier would be used as a helicopter carrier to extinguish fires.
"[The aircraft carrier] will be refurbished; we will turn it into a helicopter carrier and also for drones,” Prabowo told a disaster mitigation meeting on Sept. 7, as Kompas.com reported.
Prabowo said basing helicopters closer to fire hotspots will help disaster response. He also asked for more aircraft to be on standby to conduct water-bombing and weather-modification operations.
Prabowo’s administration has been heavily criticised for its slow response to forest fires and other natural disasters, driven by a budget focus on the poorly managed free nutritious meal programme.
The 14,000-tonne ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi was launched on June 11, 1983, and underwent various trials before being commissioned on Sept. 30, 1985. The light aircraft carrier, officially an aircraft-carrying cruiser, was decommissioned on Oct. 1, 2024, after 39 years of service.
The carrier's flat top can accommodate up to six helicopters simultaneously, while 12 helicopters can be stored in the hangar under the deck. This is a huge increase compared with existing Indonesian landing platform docks (LPDs), which can carry only two to three helicopters, increasing the speed and amount of relief goods delivered to disaster locations.
The Indonesian Navy has sent 100 personnel to Italy for training. These personnel also manned the aircraft carrier under Marina Militare supervision as part of their training regime.
In total, the aircraft needed about 500 crew, about 200 air wing personnel, and 100 command and control staff, for a total of about 800 personnel during its Italian service.
Indonesian Navy chief spokesman Cdre. Tunggul said the additional personnel were being trained as both ship crew and air wing personnel.
“Currently, all personnel are being trained under the auspices of Training Command of the First Fleet Command (Koarmada),” he told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
“The Navy has also conducted shipboard familiarisation training at the Naval Aviation Centre’s [Puspenerbal] Second Air Wing and on board KRI Makassar-590.”
The Navy built a mock-up of ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi’s landing deck at Juanda Naval Air Base in Sidoarjo, East Java, for training purposes. KRI Makassar has two landing spots for helicopters and can carry three helicopters inside its hangar.
Tunggul said the training also involved helicopters from the Indonesian Army and Indonesian Air Force in a tri-service training ahead of a Naval Parade scheduled on Oct. 4.
Tangguh Chairil, an international relations lecturer from Binus University, said that the Navy must ensure the aircraft carrier’s capacity to conduct HADR missions, including supporting assets and infrastructure.
“For example, for forest fires, we must determine which helicopters can be used for water bombing missions and which helicopters can be carrier-borne,” he told the Post on Sunday.
“Unfortunately, as an aircraft carrier, Giuseppe Garibaldi does not have a well deck, like amphibious assault vessels, which can carry landing crafts for HADR missions.”
While most aircraft carriers do not have well decks, landing helicopter docks (LHDs) do have them, such as the Mistral-class from France and the singular Trieste from Italy.
As Italy has stripped all weapon systems, Indonesia must fork over more money to rearm the aircraft carrier, with such arms as naval guns, heavy machine guns, air-to-air and anti-ship missiles, as well as anti-submarine torpedoes and depth charges.
Indonesia may also have to modernise various sensors and systems, including a combat management system (CMS).
“In terms of weapons, navigational system, radar, sensor and CMS, we have to study it further, and the matter will be decided at the Defence Ministry level,” Tunggul said.
As for which assets will be deployed, he said the aircraft carrier would become a base for drones and helicopters, as directed by the president.
Indonesia has bought a large number of Turkish UAVs, consisting of 12 units of Turkish Aerospace Industries’ Anka and 60 units of Bayraktar TB-3.
The Turkish Navy has built the 24,000-tonne TCG Anadolu as the world’s first dedicated UAV carrier, with a TB-3 making its first flight from the UAV carrier on Feb. 18.
The Defence Ministry has also signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with Italian aircraft maker Leonardo and weapons broker PT ESystem Solution to supply the Indonesian Navy with AW149 medium multipurpose helicopters.
Because the LoI has not been converted into a binding contract, it is unclear when Indonesia will receive the helicopters. Typically, a defence contract takes two to three years to be fulfilled. - Jakarta Post/ANN
