Established through the first phase of the Minimum Essential Forces (MEF) Plan, there are nowadays a total of 10 strategic projects, which include military satellites, fighters, submarines, radar, medium tanks, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and guided missiles.

Strategic defense projects and their definition are particularly important for several reasons.

First, they should be considered as strategic military assets before anything else. In other words, these assets should provide a strategic advantage on the battlefield and provide the end-users with an adequate and specific capacity to deter, deny and defeat potential adversaries.

In this perspective, a 4.5 generation aircraft such as the KF-21, which is jointly developed by South Korea Aerospace Industry (KAI) and PT Dirgantara Indonesia (DI), should provide Indonesia with a clear capacity to handle air threats. Likewise, proposed Naval Group Scorpene Evolved submarines will permit Indonesia to ensure long-range deterrence to secure its sovereign domain and interests.

The second reason is related to the benefits for a country to develop these strategic projects as they tend to support the establishment of what has been dubbed strategic autonomy.

As a matter of fact, most of these projects are planned to be implemented with the participation of the national defense industry. Indeed, the existing regulations, such as Law No. 16/2012 on the defense industry, support the idea that such projects will benefit domestic actors. Such a commitment has been encouraged by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who has pointed out on several occasions that Indonesia should shift its mindset from defense spending to defense investment.