ndonesia puts submarine procurements on hold until 2011

Indonesia's plan to procure at least two diesel-powered submarines has been delayed by two years owing to insufficient defence procurement funds, a senior Indonesian defence official has announced.

Rear Marshal Eris Herryanto, the Ministry of Defence's (MoD's) director general for defence facilities was quoted by state media as saying on 29 July: "Although the government will increase the funding allocation by 20 per cent in the 2010 state budget, the increase is not enough to purchase ... submarines and new jet-fighters."

He added: "We will continue to study producers [of submarines] from countries from where we would purchase [them] but we will not [be able to] realise it in the near future because the purchase is postponed until 2011."

Although officials from the Indonesian MoD could not be reached by Jane's for comment, an executive from PT Pal - the state-owned Indonesian shipbuilder that has already been selected to produce the second submarine under licence from a foreign manufacturer - confirmed that the procurement had been deferred, although he said the length of the delay was not yet established.

http://www.janes.com/news/defence/naval/jni/jni090731_1_n.shtml