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AKARTA: The Indonesian Military (TNI) said it was planning to purchase new submarines and had received offers from several countries, including Germany, France and South Korea.

“Russia also placed a bid but it was later disqualified because the submarines they were offering were too big and not suitable for an archipelagic country,” Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Soeparno was quoted as saying Sunday by news portal tempointeraktif.com.

Soeparno said the TNI was making final assessments on the bids to pick one of the three countries. The French are offering Scorpène class submarines at a cost of €550 million (US$804 million), while Germany is proposing the U-209 class patrol submarine. South Korea is offering the Chang Bogo, which reportedly has similar specifications to the U-209.

The TNI currently operates two submarines, the KRI Cakra and KRI Nanggala, which have been in service since the 1980s. The KRI Cakra, however, has been undergoing an overhaul expected to be finished in January 2012. — JP