T

he crash of a Brazilian-made Super Tucano aircraft in Malang, East Java, on Feb. 10, killing three people, including the pilot, shocked not only the Indonesian Air Force that owned and operated the training plane, but also the general public, coming in the wake of a series of accidents involving military aircraft over the past year. Less than two months earlier, on Dec. 10, a South Korean-made T50i Golden Eagle fighter jet crashed during an acrobatic air show in Yogyakarta, killing the two pilots on board.

On March 15 last year, two training aircraft belonging to the Air Force'€™s acrobatic Jupiter Team crashed during rehearsal practice ahead of the Langkawi Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition in Malaysia. The two South Korean-made Wong Bee KT-1Bs were completely destroyed, but all four pilots and copilots managed to eject
to safety.

A month later, an ageing F-16 jet fighter burned out after a failed takeoff attempt at Halim Perdanakusuma Airbase in East Jakarta. The pilot survived the accident. Later, on June 30, an aging Hercules military transport aircraft crashed on its way from Medan to Riau Islands, killing 141 people on board, including pilots and crew.

These five accidents inflicted huge material and non-material losses on the Air Force and a developing country like Indonesia, where defense spending is limited. In three of the accidents, not only passengers, but most importantly the pilots were killed. The death of the pilots dealt a big blow to the Air Force and consequently the country because they were among the best military pilots '€” the main component of a country'€™s air force. It will take the Air Force time to train new pilots to replace them. Such training must be paid for by the state.

A complete training program to produce a reliable Indonesian military pilot costs the country about
Rp 10 billion (US$ 740,300).

The price of the aircraft that crashed, particularly the relatively brand new Super Tucano, T50i Golden Eagle and Wong Bee KT-1B planes, itself speaks about the material losses resulted from the accidents.

Take the Super Tucano, for example. The Defense Ministry signed two contracts worth a total of $284 million with the Brazilian aerospace conglomerate Embraer SA in 2010 and 2012 to build a squadron of 16 Super Tucanos to replace the OV-10 Bronco aircraft, which were no longer operational. Twelve of the Brazilian-made aircraft, including the one that crashed, have reinforced the Air Force fleet, while the remaining four are still waiting to be delivered.

The big loss is also valid for the Wong Bee KT-1B and the T50 Golden Eagle, the unit cost of which
at time of purchase could reach $9.09 million and $25 million, respectively.

Apart from the huge investment needed to produce military pilots and procure military aircraft, particularly fighter jets, the accidents significantly lower the country'€™s military strength and posture. While procurement of military equipment in the last few years has been solely in order to meet minimum essential force (MEF) to safeguard the country'€™s territory and simultaneously maintain its integrity, rather than to boost Indonesia'€™s strength against potential rivals, the accidents have plunged the country'€™s military strength to a level below minimum capacity once again.

Earlier, a decade-long embargo by the West, coupled with the country'€™s debilitated economy following the 1997/1998 Asian financial crisis, reduced the country'€™s military'€™s posture and consequently weakened its bargaining power among the international community. It was during the second term of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono'€™s presidency in 2009-2014, along with the country'€™s recovering economy, that initiatives for procurement of new military equipment were taken.

The series of accidents, unfortunately, will once again hamper the country'€™s bid to modernize its armed forces. Worse, the global economic woes have adversely affected Indonesia'€™s purchasing power and, hence, its military modernization program.

For the general public, five accidents involving military aircraft within a year should be a cause for concern. One major reason is the fact that the procurement of the military equipment was covered by the state budget, which mostly, or about 80 percent, comes from taxpayer contributions.

The public'€™s concern is understandable because information related to investigations and analysis into nearly all accidents involving military aircraft has never been disclosed to the public. The Indonesian Military (TNI) has kept the results of its internal investigations into those accidents to itself for the purpose of evaluation. The public '€” as taxpayers '€” has no right to know in this case.

The military headquarters must have its own reasons for not publishing the investigation results. One of the reasons is confidentiality as an accident may involve technology issues that producers do not want to disclose. Other reasons include sensitivity especially when, for example, human error was the cause of an accident.

But because any procurement of military equipment is paid by taxpayers through the state budget, the general public deserves to know what causes military plane crashes or other accidents involving our defense equipment.