Asia Defense | Security | Southeast Asia

The Indonesian Air Force’s Turkish Turn

Jakarta has recently signed onto several major Turkish aerospace industry programs with significant implications for the future of its airpower and domestic defense industry.

A prototype of the Turkish Aerospace Industries’ KAAN fighter jet during taxiing and ground running tests in Ankara, Türkiye, Mar. 17, 2023.

On May 6, Indonesia signed a framework contract with the Turkish company Baykar for the delivery of an initial 12 Bayraktar Kızılelma high-performance uncrewed combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) and the establishment of production and maintenance facilities in Indonesia, during the SAHA 2026 defense exhibition in Istanbul, underscoring the growing Indonesia-Türkiye defense partnership.

Türkiye has become but one – albeit arguably the most important of late – source of defense equipment to help modernize the Indonesian military (Tentara Nasional Indonesia, TNI). Jakarta has recently signed four major contracts for military aircraft with Türkiye, involving no less than six different types of crewed and uncrewed combat aircraft. This cooperation dates to April 2011, when the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on defense industrial collaboration.

The Indonesia-Türkiye defense industrial collaboration has emerged as perhaps Jakarta’s most strategic move to date. The recent agreements are just a part of a much broader defense materiel cooperation with Türkiye, which covers land, sea and air capabilities. This includes the I-class guided-missile frigates, Atmaca antiship missiles, Khan (Bora-1) short-range ballistic missiles, Trisula-O (Hisar-O) medium-range and Trisula-U (Hisar-U) long-range air-defense systems, and Harimau (Kaplan MT) medium tanks. Future plans also include cooperation on submarines. To underline the importance that Indonesia places on the bilateral defense ties, the country has become the first foreign customer for many of these systems.

In recent years, Jakarta has aggressively diversified its sources of defense materiel, moving beyond traditional Western suppliers amid concerns over weapons and spares embargoes, and political constraints related to technology access and operational use.

Besides the close affinity with Türkiye – both nations are rapidly growing Muslim-majority middle powers searching for strategic autonomy and defense self-reliance – Indonesia has sought military aircraft from no fewer than 10 countries over the last decade, including Italy, Austria, France, Türkiye, the United States, China, South Korea, Europe (Airbus), Brazil, and Russia. In addition, Jakarta has considered further combat aircraft, including second-hand Mirage 2000-5s from Qatar and Eurofighter Typhoons from Austria, while negotiating for the JF-17 with Pakistan.

Jakarta’s procurement decisions have often been haphazard and done with little foresight or consideration over the long-term financing, sustainment, and training for a wide variety of different platforms of various origin, let alone questions of interoperability, maintenance, and logistics. The clear over-diversification has already caused significant wastage of resources in separate logistics and support infrastructures, interoperability challenges, multiple training pipelines, and a lack of synergy, which has created silos of capability rather than a single, integrated air force.

Jakarta is also applying a stringent set of requirements for technology transfer in order to gain greater operational and technological ownership of acquired platforms, enable integration of local content, and expand its local defense industry. However, gaining access to sensitive, often intellectual property rights-protected systems has proven difficult as many OEMs are unwilling to share proprietary or sensitive information with foreign customers.

Türkiye is a different story, as seen in its recent cooperation with Indonesia over the development and manufacture of uncrewed systems. According to Republikorp, the two nations’ partnership involves the construction of an entire ecosystem for development of next-generation UCAVs in Indonesia. Through technology transfer, co-production, and the establishment of a local industrial ecosystem, Indonesia has become a leading operator of uncrewed systems in Southeast Asia.

The Indonesian Air Force (TNI-AU) already operates a range of U.S., Chinese, and Turkish-made surveillance unmanned aircraft systems to monitor the country’s massive maritime space, critical maritime chokepoints, and remote parts of the archipelago.

Between 2024 and 2026, Indonesia signed up for four different Baykar UCAV models: the battle-tested medium-altitude, long-endurance Bayraktar TB-2, its carrier-borne brethren, the TB-3, the twin-engined high-altitude, long-endurance Akıncı, and the high-performance Kızılelma fighter-like UCAV. Additionally, Indonesia has received Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI)’s uncrewed Anka-S in 2023.

Critically, as part of these agreements, Indonesia’s PT Republik Aero Digintara or Republikorp, a private defense holding company and a strategic partner to Indonesia’s defense industrial base, signed a joint venture with Baykar for co-production and delivery of 60 TB-3 and nine Akıncı UCAVs to the TNI-AU. This follows a similar agreement between TAI and the Indonesian state-owned enterprise PTDI signed in 2023 for 12 Anka-S UASs, half of which were to be assembled locally. The most recent contract signed with Baykar for the acquisition of the Kızılelma extends the earlier agreement with technology transfer, joint research and development, training, establishment of local MRO facilities, and an option for local production of up to 48 Kızılelmas locally.

In addition to uncrewed aircraft, Indonesia has sought crewed combat aircraft from around the world. Jakarta signed a deal........

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