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View all search resultsThe five pillars to transmute Indonesia-US defense partnership
To turn a historic paper pact into real Indo-Pacific deterrence, Washington and Jakarta must move beyond symbolic drills to build a high-tech, gray-zone defense partnership that respects Indonesia’s strategic nonalignment.
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United States military personnel fire a Javelin anti-tank weapon system during the Super Garuda Shield 2024 joint military exercise including Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Britain and the US in Situbondo, East Java on Sept. 6, 2024. (AFP/Juni Kriswanto)
O
ff the coast of Hawaii, Indonesian Marines are operating alongside their United States counterparts in the sprawling 30th Rim of the Pacific exercises. This tactical unity follows a historic milestone at the Pentagon: the signing of the Indonesia-US Major Defense Cooperation Partnership (MDCP) last April. On paper, the framework signals a shared imperative to secure a volatile Indo-Pacific.
Yet ink on paper neither deters gray-zone aggression nor secures vital maritime chokepoints like the Strait of Malacca. For the MDCP to become a transformative mechanism rather than a boilerplate bureaucratic victory, both countries should look beyond symbolic drills.
Washington should treat Indonesia’s nonalignment not as a strategic barrier, but as a stabilizing regional anchor. In return, Jakarta should move past its historical wariness of Western entanglement to coauthor a realistic deterrence strategy.
Operationalizing this vision requires upgrading five key pillars.
First, Jakarta and Washington should move the MDCP beyond high-level declarations toward real codevelopment of asymmetric maritime capabilities. To secure its archipelagic waters against gray-zone coercion, Jakarta requires cost-effective technology, specifically underwater unmanned vehicles, autonomous aerial surveillance and distributed sensor networks.
Turning this vision into reality requires Washington to streamline cumbersome Foreign Military Sales procedures and carve out targeted International Traffic in Arms Regulations exemptions for non-treaty partners. By partnering directly with Indonesia’s defense state-owned holding, Defend ID, through joint production and local-content integration, the US can transform defense trade from a transactional sales relationship into an enduring industrial partnership.
Second, the partnership should resolve the logistical bottlenecks crippling Indonesian defense readiness. While recent momentum to establish a regional C-130 Hercules maintenance hub at Kertajati Airport in West Java is a welcome start, maintenance, repair and overhaul localization should extend into the maritime domain.
