The COVID-19 pandemic, however, interfered with progressing toward this goal. The TNI has come to play an important role in maintaining COVID-19 governance in Indonesia. Indeed, its involvement sparked some concerns about the possible expansion of the military beyond defense matters, with many activists and academics expressing concern. Nonetheless, it would be unwise to neglect the fact that the military made a positive contribution to suppressing the outbreak.

The precarious situation of the pandemic certainly has impacted the arms procurement plan, at least in financial terms. Nonetheless, beyond the financial issue, there are other lessons we can learn from the current COVID-19 outbreak, particularly because of the military's involvement in pandemic management.

We can draw at least three lessons: Improving military readiness and capability requires more than adding modern weapons, the need to improve the capability for military operations other than war (MOOTW), and the formulation of the next modernization plan should go beyond the current pandemic situation.

First, increasing military readiness and capability is not limited to adding state-of-the-art military armaments. Improving military infrastructure can be another way to do so. The formation of the COVID-19 task force in March 2020 and later the COVID-19 handling and national economic recovery committee in July 2020 further facilitated the supporting role of the military in combating the outbreak.

The TNI's supporting roles in COVID-19 primarily revolved around civil actions, logistical distribution and enforcement of health protocols. The TNI carried out this work hand-in-hand with civilian partners, such as assisting the police with health protocol enforcement in many cities.

The TNI’s extensive infrastructure network also helped the government to improve administrative efficiency. For example, military hospitals across the country served as additional medical facilities to support COVID-19 management, not to mention the establishment of some emergency medical units, particularly on Galang Island, Riau Islands province.

However, the military's contribution to managing the pandemic had already begun before the government officially announced the first COVID-19 case in Indonesia. The military used its Air Force C-130s to evacuate Indonesian citizens from Wuhan, China. To top off the list, the TNI also established the Integrated Joint Task Command (Kogasgabpad) in March 2020 coordinated by the Joint Regional Defense Command 1 (Kogabwilhan 1), to support COVID-19 management in the country.

It should be noted that the formation of Kogabwilhan was part of the effort to increase the effectiveness of the TNI's force structure as a “first responder” in countering internal and external threats. The modernization of Indonesia's armed forces was packaged into the concept of the Minimum Essential Force (MEF) program.

The MEF program, which began in 2009, was primarily aimed at modernizing and rejuvenating the TNI's aging military platforms and improving the military's organizational structure. The devastating impact of the Asian financial crisis and the arms embargo were the two main contributors to obsolescence.

Nevertheless, the MEF program was intended to modernize not only the TNI but also Indonesia's strategic industries. The all-encompassing nature of the program was designed to enable the military to have adequate capabilities to respond to potential threats. Moreover, the modernization agenda emphasized the rejuvenation of the armed forces, such as jet fighters, tanks, warships and submarines.

Second, the pandemic demonstrated the already growing importance of capability in MOOTW. The multilayered nature of the pandemic has the potential to trigger a variety of snowball effects.

One grim scenario opens the possibility of the occurrence of social unrest due to economic hardships caused by the pandemic. Such a grim scenario required the readiness of the military to maintain national security and stability.

Natural disasters are another problem that regularly occurs in Indonesian territory, the most recent being the flooding in East Nusa Tenggara. In sum, TNI participation in disaster relief remains critical.

Next, other threats, such as terrorist attacks, could jeopardize pandemic management. Consequently, the situation forces the security apparatus to be cautious in managing and allocating its manpower and resources, as other security threats could emerge at any time.

It is also possible that the emergence of these other threats will threaten COVID-19 management, such as the recent suicide bombing in Makassar, which occurred close to a vaccination site. Although the attack did not significantly disrupt vaccination activities, the potential impediment to pandemic management from direct or indirect security threats can never be completely dismissed.

Therefore, ensuring TNI readiness to respond to a broad range of MOOTW challenges should be included in the defense modernization plan to, at a minimum, prevent overstretching resources.

Third, while both the TNI and Defense Ministry are still busy with the current force modernization plan and preparing all necessary military operations, the Indonesian defense establishment needs to start planning its next generation of defense modernization. This concern was raised by the new Deputy Defense Minister Muhammad Herindra, who recently spoke about the plan to change from a “minimal” to a “rational” armed forces modernization plan.

On this occasion, Herindra said the plan must include stronger positioning to increase Indonesia's geopolitical influence.

Although it remains unclear how the Defense Ministry and the TNI will define and pursue the "rational" modernization efforts, the two institutions should prepare and develop such plans before handing them over to the next government. Therefore, a future modernization plan must not be heavily fixated on the current pandemic situation.

In sum, the current COVID-19 outbreak has indeed taught us some important lessons that can serve as considerations in building the future force structure. However, the development of the next defense modernization agenda should take into account a wide range of elements and go beyond the current pandemic.

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Adhi Priamarizki and Sigit S. Nugroho are respectively visiting fellow and research associate at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.