Strengthening the Submarine Fleet

We still hope that the 53 crew members and personnel on this ship are found safe. We appreciate the helping hand in the search from neighboring countries, such as Australia, Malaysia and Singapore.

KOMPAS/BAHANA PATRIA GUPTA

The KRI Nanggala-402 submarine docked at the Madura Pier of the Indonesian Eastern Fleet Command in Surabaya, Monday (6/2/2012) after repairs in South Korea.

Unlike some other countries in Southeast Asia, Indonesia has a visionary plan for developing primary marine weaponry systems.

We already operated 12 Whiskey-class submarines made in the Soviet Union in the early 1960s. Submarines strengthened the Indonesian naval fleet at the time, whose posture was solid like the Air Force. The regime change brought to a halt the imports of primary weaponry systems (alutsista) from the Eastern Block, including submarines, one of which is the Pasopati, which is now a tourist attraction in Surabaya, East Java.