The Indonesian Ministry of Defence is currently evaluating proposals from Russia, Turkey, and South Korea in a programme to acquire 50 armoured personnel carriers (APCs) for the Indonesian Marines (Korps Marinir: KORMAR).
Jane's understands from sources close to the procurement process that options being considered are namely the BTR-80 from Russia's Military-Industrial Company, the ACV-19 from Turkey's FNSS, and the Next Infantry Fighting Vehicle (NIFV) K21 from South Korea's Doosan. A sum of USD95 million has been allocated for the programme, and will be provided for under the defence ministry's budget for 2017.
Besides deployment with local KORMAR units, the APCs are also being planned for Indonesia's deployment at international operations, such as United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions.
According to programme briefing documents provided to Jane's, one of the requirements in the contract is that the winning bidder must deliver between 10-15 APCs in 'semi-knocked down' (SKD) state of assembly to Indonesia, with final assembly to be done locally through technology transfer arrangements.
A subsequent batch of 35-40 units is to be delivered through licenced production arrangements with local companies that have been certified by the Indonesian government as capable of undertaking the production tasks. A company that is widely anticipated to be given this responsibility is state-owned PT Pindad, which has produced a line or armoured vehicles for the Indonesian Armed Forces.
The ministry is expected to come to a decision by April 2017, by when approval to proceed with acquisition will be formally sought from the Indonesian House of Representatives commission on defence, intelligence, and foreign affairs (Komisi I).
(Jane's)