Government to Prepare US$130 Million
Monday, 19 June, 2006 | 17:44 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Department of Defense will prepare a budget of US$130 million to purchase machinery and spare parts for Hercules C-130 transport planes belonging to the Indonesian Air Force from the United States this year.

Juwono Sudarsono, the Minister of Defense, has stated that the budget is needed to activate two previously grounded Hercules that have machinery damage.

“One Hercules requires US$65 million,” Juwono told Tempo when contacted on Friday last week.

The Hercules machinery and spare parts will be directly bought through Foreign Military Sales channels.

“We've already prepared the budget from Rupiah funds,” Juwono said.

In addition to the Rupiah funds from this year's state budget, additional funding will come from the Department of Defense budget of US$27 million.

The US$27 million budget, Juwono said, was prepared some 11 years ago.

It was actually intended to purchase weapon systems that had been delayed by the US arms embargo.

“Now, we'll focus the allocation to re-activate the Hercules,” said Juwono.

The Department of Defense has focused its primary weapon system purchase budget for transport equipment and provisioning.

The Indonesian Air Force owns 20 Hercules aircraft but only eight of them remain in active service.

“These Hercules aircraft are very much needed for disaster handling,” said Juwono.

The Defense Minister also said the US$65 million budget will be utilized to two Hercules engines, some spare parts and avionic equipment (aerial navigation system).

As for the airplane frame, he said, the Indonesian Air Force can fix it by itself and this will still be cheaper than buying new aircraft.

Juwono acknowledged that the purchase process of machinery and spare parts, which have been on ordered since the beginning of the year, has not yet been carried out.

This matter was also discussed with the US Secretary of State for Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, when he visited Indonesia on June 6 this year, Juwono added.

Juwono asked Rumsfield that the distribution of the Hercules machinery and spare parts be speeded up.

Rumsfeld promised to investigate where the delays has happened so as to speed up the purchase.

“Has it been delayed at the US Department of Defense, because of the official permits from the US Department of Foreign Affairs, or related private constructors,” he asked.

Dimas Adidyo and Rieka Rahadiana