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Govt urged to update military aircraft
The House of Representativesâ Commission I, which oversees information, defense and foreign affairs, has called on the government to renew all aging military aircraft
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he House of Representatives' Commission I, which oversees information, defense and foreign affairs, has called on the government to renew all aging military aircraft.
The call came following news of a C-130 Hercules that crashed into a residential area in Medan, North Sumatra, at midday on Tuesday. The accident, which killed at least 12 crew members and 21 local residents, occurred as the commission was holding a confirmation hearing for Sutiyoso, who was nominated by President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo to replace Marciano Norman as National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief.
Pramono Anung, a commission member from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that most of the Air Force's Hercules aircraft fleet were no longer in good shape as a result of their relatively old age and the lack of quality spare parts.
'We in Commission I ask the government to buy new planes for the Air Force. The current fleet is mostly made up of old, poor-quality aircraft. It's shameful that our soldiers still have to use them,' he said.
Commission chair Mahfudz Siddiq said that the crash highlighted the urgent need for the modernization of Indonesian military equipment, adding that the commission was trying to identify the origins of the plane involved in the crash.
'We are still trying to identify if the plane was one given by another country or whether it was an old Hercules plane that recently underwent an upgrading in Singapore. Whichever it is, it highlights the urgent need to modernize our military's fleet,' he said on Tuesday.
He further called on the government not to receive any more used aircraft or ships, in light of the manifest risks.(+++)
