Indonesia and Ukroboronprom, Ukraine's state-owned defence industry holding group, are expected to commence talks before the end of the year focused on the Southeast Asian country's licenced production of the BTR-4 8x8 amphibious wheeled armoured personnel carrier (APC).
Speaking at Indo Defence 2016 exhibition in Jakarta, a representative of Ukroboronprom said the production programme could follow the official acceptance of an initial five BTR-4s, which were ordered by the Indonesian Marines Corps (KORMAR) in 2014 and delivered in September 2016.
Official acceptance of the five vehicles is scheduled for the end of 2016, although KORMAR's total BTR-4 requirement is much more expansive as the service looks to replace about 100 BTR-50PK APCs that were acquired from Ukraine in the late 1990s. There are also understood to be amphibious APC requirements in the Indonesian Army (TNI-AD).
"After official acceptance we will talk about expanding technology transfers to Indonesia and about expanding the order," said a Ukroboronprom official. "We know [KORMAR] has a requirement for another 50 vehicles. This could mean some of these vehicles are built in Ukraine followed by technology transfers and local production in Indonesia."
The official added that this programme could expand even further if the TNI-AD's interest in the vehicle results in an order.
The BTR-4s delivered to the KORMAR have been equipped with one ZTM-1 30 mm automatic cannon as a primary weapon, and complemented with one AGS-17 30 mm automatic grenade launcher. The vehicles, manufactured by the Kharkov Morozov Machine Building Plant in Ukraine, have also been equipped with a nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) filtration system.
(Jane's)