Submarines and Our Defense
Feeling proud and moved upon hearing the trial of a submarine made by PT PAL, KRI Alugoro 405, in the waters of Banyuwangi, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had a close look at it.
The Alugoro submarine sails the Bali Strait on Tuesday (21/1/2020), as seen from the coast of Banyuwangi, East Java. The submarine, built by state-owned shipbuilder PT PAL in collaboration with Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME), successfully completed its dive to a test depth of 250 meters.
The President had a close look on Monday (27/1/2020) at the ship, which was built with technical assistance from Korea. From the historical side, the use of submarines in primary weapon defense systems (Alutsista) by the Navy is not new. At least the Republic of Indonesia had begun operating submarines in the 1960s when Indonesia imported massive weapons systems from (at that time) the Soviet Union and a number of Eastern Bloc countries. At that time no less than 14 submarines were acquired, including from the Whiskey class.
However, the operation period of the submarines was not long. After the change of regime in the mid-1960s, there was a shift in defense equipment from the East to West Bloc. The Republic of Indonesia operated the submarines again when in the 1980s it bought two submarines from Germany, KRI Cakra and KRI Nenggala. In terms of exposure, submarines are less popular than warplanes.