Indonesian Navy to scrap old war ships and airplanes

At least 12 warships and 16 airplanes belonging to the Indonesian Navy will be scrapped and be replaced with new ones, Navy chief of staff Adm. Agus Suhartono said in Surabaya on Friday.

The scrapping of the old fleets is part of the blue print in the Navy's fleet and personnel development program for the 2010-2014 period, Agus said.

“In the first stage the scrapping will be done on four of the 12 war ships. All of them are of landing ship tank types made in the United States in 1942,” Agus said as was quoted by the state Antara news agency.

“The scrapping will not affect the strength of the Navy fleet because we have already built and also prepared similar warships and others of the landing dock platform types,” he said.

The same would be done on the Navy's airplane fleet. Out of the 21 Nomad airplanes owned by the Navy, only five will still be utilized for training purposes, Agus said.

Operating old fleet is no longer economical due to the high cost of maintenance, he added.