Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto sent a letter dated July 10 to his Austrian counterpart Klaudia Tanner offering to buy the heavy jet fighters, just four days after the United States cleared Indonesia’s purchase of Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey tiltrotors and related equipment worth some US$2 billion.

The ministry’s spokesman, Brig. Gen. Djoko Purwanto, said the planned purchase had been thoroughly researched. “Everything is studied and selected before the government issues a formal purchase offer,” Djoko said during a press conference on Thursday.

Lawmakers and observers were quick to slam the plan, saying it would violate Law No. 16/2012, which says priority should be given to domestic defense companies in the procurement of tools for its primary weapons system (Alutsista). President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo also directed officials in November last year not to purchase “obsolete and outdated weapon systems”.

Should the plan materialize, it will not be the first for Indonesia.

In 1980, the country bought 32 Douglas A-4E and T-A4 H Skyhawk attack jets from Israel in cloak-and-dagger fashion. The official explanation was that Indonesia procured the jets from the US, which bought them from Israel after they were decommissioned. Indonesian pilots, however, were sent to an Israeli air force base codenamed “Arizona” for training.

More recently in 2011, Indonesia chose to buy 24 used F-16 C/D Block 25 jet fighters and upgrade the engines and avionics with a cost of some $600 million over six brand new F-16 C/D Fighting Falcon Block 52 jet fighters worth around $430 million.

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