The acquisition of BMP-3F infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) and BT-3F armored personnel carriers (APCs) has met all the required procedures as stipulated in Law No. 16/2012 on the defense industry, defense observer Curie Maharani told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

The law requires all defense acquisitions from foreign suppliers to include countertrade, local content and offset (IDKLO) deals.

“The IDKLO deals include design and engineering, education and training, transfer of technology, maintenance and joint development,” Curie said.

She added the recipients of such deals would include both state-owned defense companies such as land system manufacturer PT Pindad and electronics maker PT LEN as well as private ones.

The Defense Ministry’s Defense Facilities Agency signed on April 22 a contract with Russian export agency Rosoboronexport for the purchase of 22 BMP-3F IFVs worth US$108 million for the Navy’s Marine Corps, the ministry said in a release.

The Marine Corps already operates BMP-3F vehicles and the April purchase was the third contract.

The April contract also included the acquisition of 21 BT-3F APCs worth $67.2 million.

In a separate release, Rosoboron said Indonesia was the launch customer for the BT-3F, which shares the same platform as the BMP-3F, a venerable amphibious war machine using tracked wheels for amphibious landing operations.

Curie said Pindad already had the capabilities in amphibious and tracked wheels technology although it could not be compared to Russia’s long experience in the technology. “What we must ensure is that in any defense acquisition from foreign suppliers, we must involve local companies in both the production and maintenance stages.”

A similar view was shared by Adik Aviantara, a former president director of Pindad, who said that some of the production process had to be done in Indonesia.

“The most important thing is there should be a political will from the leadership to use local defense products as much as possible,” he told the Post.

Curie said the acquisition of local defense products, including from Pindad, was seeing an increasing trend.

In 2014, only 28.1 percent of all defense equipment purchases were for local products, and it almost doubled to 49.9 percent in 2018.

The reason for acquiring Russian armored vehicles was because the Marine Corps had two stringent criteria in purchasing their amphibious war machines.

“The first criteria is that the armored vehicle has to be an outstanding swimmer,” Sena Maulana, who was involved in designing Pindad’s own APC the Anoa, said.

“I have to admit that the BMP-3F is the top swimmer, comparable only to the US-made LVT-7.”

The second requirement, Sena said, was that the armored vehicle had to be able to navigate the landing area: sandy beaches.

“Only vehicles with tracked wheels can navigate sandy terrain extremely well,” he said. “Pindad already has the capabilities on amphibious vehicles and tracked wheels. We would be very happy if given the chance to work on the Marine Corps’ armored vehicles.”

Rostec CEO Sergy Chemezov said the state-owned holding conglomerate saw huge potential to develop cooperation with Indonesia.

“Rostec is ready to build industrial partnerships of the highest profile,” Chemezov said in Rosoboronexport’s release.

Rostec specializes in defense and high-technology products, ranging from armored vehicles, helicopters, trucks and jet fighters to pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.

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