JAKARTA: The sinking of the Indonesian submarine KRI Nanggala 402 has drawn attention to the potential challenges of operating ageing military equipment in the Southeast Asian country.
The need to maintain this number of naval assets seems to be the reason why ageing weaponries and equipment have not been retired, he added. Mr Beni Sukadis, a senior researcher at defence and security consultancy, Marapi Consulting said from a safety perspective, using old equipment should be fine as long as it is properly maintained.
This leaves the military with a budget of 9.4 trillion rupiah to modernise its ageing hardware. “If we divide this sum between the three branches of the military, the figure becomes really small,” Mr Sukadis said. “This shows that the various presidents and administrations we have had, all were committed to addressing the issue of modernising our ageing equipment,” he said. “But the budget is still not enough considering Indonesia’s size and strategic position.”
“We have been prioritising development and prosperity , so haven’t been modernised,” he told a press conference on Apr 22.
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.