Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Djoko Santoso said Monday only half of the aging war machines to be used in a joint military exercise had been safety tested, but he was confident the exercise would go well.

"Safety in the war exercise does not depend only on weaponry but also on human resources," he said after opening the joint exercise at the Air Force Headquarters at the Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta.

The military chief said the TNI had sought to maximize maintenance of the aging weaponry to ensure safety, given the limited budget available for replacing the equipment.

Earlier last week, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono again ordered TNI to ground its aging military equipment after a series of air and sea accidents.

The latest accident occurred Feb. 3 when a 46-year-old amphibious tank sunk during a military drill in the waters off the East Java town of Situbondo, killing seven marines.

The accident came just over one month after an old Nomad plane belonging to the Navy crashed in waters off Sabang in Aceh, leaving four crew members dead and another missing.

Djoko said the TNI needed not only to replace the aging weaponry but also add new weaponry to adapt to global changes and increasing threats to national security.

He said the joint exercise involving the Army, Air Force and Navy was aimed at anticipating any possible external threats, especially from border areas in the country neighboring Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam.

The first joint military exercise in the last 12 years will be held from April 21 to June 20 in four separate locations.

The coordinating exercise will take place in Cilodong and Bogor, followed by field exercises in Singkawang, West Kalimantan, and Natuna Island in Riau province. It will end with an exercise in Sangata, East Kalimantan.

Djoko said the joint exercise was conducted in areas where threats to the nation's "integrity" had been identified.

"Such a joint exercise should be held once every five years. But it could only be organized now as we have been faced with budget issues and time limits," Djoko said.

The Navy will deploy 13,571 personnel, making up almost half of the total team of 30,571 members for the exercise that will cost the TNI Rp 50 billion (US$5.4 million).

The exercise, which will simulate military personnel fighting to win back seized areas from an enemy, will involve 38 tanks, 19 armored cars, nine helicopters from the Army and 61 ships from the Navy and the Air Force's war airplanes.

During hearings with the House of Representatives earlier this year, the TNI said the country was facing serious "integrity issues" in border areas, where most residents lived in poverty.

Lawmakers urged the government to pay more attention to the welfare of residents living in border areas, such as in Entikong, West Kalimantan, where some residents have given up their Indonesian nationality to join a Malaysian paramilitary force to earn a living.

The Askar Wataniah paramilitary force consists of 40,000 members who help guard the 2,000-kilometer border between the two countries on Borneo island.

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