Currently, the Indonesian Navy has frigates, corvettes, fast attack and counterattack ships, minesweepers, amphibious transport ships, support ships, and training ships. And recently Indonesia’s navy received three Nagapasa class submarines.
Recently the state-owned company PT PAL Indonesia succeeded in creating a submarine which was commissioned to Indonesia Navy in 6th April 2021. In terms of the production of the main weapon system (Alutsista), the domestic industry is already capable.
March 17th was a proud moment for Indonesia. Because that day the Ministry of Defense (Kemhan) had completed the construction of the first submarine made by the national company PT PAL Indonesia. The submarine was named Alugoro-405. This makes Indonesia the only country in Southeast Asia capable of building submarines.
The submarine fleet of the Indonesian Navy is expected to operate for at least seven submarines by 2028. The submarine in the fleet are named after the mythical weapons of the Mahabharat character.
Indonesia has a collaboration with South Korea on technology transfer of attack submarines with a series of 3 Nagapasa-class submarines of the Indonesian Navy (an upgraded variant of Korea’s Chang Bogo-class submarine). The first Nagapasa-class submarine built in Indonesia was KRI Alugoro (405), assembled by PT PAL and launched in April 2019.
The ship was ordered together with KRI Nagpasa and KRI Ardadedali on December 2, 2011 in a contract worth USD 1.07 billion between Indonesia and Korea (Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering was awarded the contract).
Under the contract, KRI Nagpasa and KRI Ardadedali will be built in Korea and KRI Alugoro (405) will be assembled at PT PAL in Surabaya as part of a technology transfer program. This is also the first ship to be assembled and launched in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. KRI Alugoro (405) was launched in April 2019 but was only officially handed over in March 2021.
Regarding the remaining two ships in this series of three Nagapasa-class submarines, KRI Ardadedali was delivered and commissioned in a ceremony at DSME’s shipyard in Okpo, Geoje in April 2018, before arriving at the base at Surabaya. The ship belongs to the 2nd Fleet of the Indonesian Navy, based in Surabaya.
The three Nagapasa-class submarines were all commissioned by Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu in August 2017. Then it was taken to Surabaya where the Chief of Staff of the Indonesian Navy received it. But then, KRI Nagapasa was assigned to the Eastern Fleet of the Indonesian Navy (Koarmatim).
Regarding Nagapasa-class submarines, these submarines have a hull length of 61.3m and a maximum width of 6.25m. The ship has a displacement of 1,400 tons and a maximum range of 11,000 nautical miles. By design, the ship needs a crew of 40 people to operate.
Equipped with four MTU 12V493 diesel generators, the Nagapasa-class submarines can reach a maximum speed of 21.5 knots submerged and 11 knots in surfaced. The maximum depth under test conditions of Nagapasa submarines is 500m.
The Nagapasa-class submarines are equipped with the Kongsberg MSI-90U Mk 2 combat management system, the Wärtsilä ELAC KaleidoScope sonar kit, side sonar arrays, the Pegasso RESM system, Safran’s Sigma 40XP inertial navigation system, plus periscope Hensoldt SERO 400 and OMS 100. In particular, Nagapasa-class submarines also possess ZOKA acoustic torpedo countermeasures produced by Turkish company ASELSAN.
The Nagapasa-class submarines are also equipped with state-of-the-art equipment including: Black Shark torpedoes manufactured by Whitehead Sistemi Subacquei of Italy, which have a speed of 50 knots (93 km/h; 58 mph) and range. 50 km with 8 533mm torpedo tubes.
With the transfer of technology to be able to self-improve submarines, Indonesia has become the first country in the region to have the technology to build conventional submarines.
Capturing submarine manufacturing technology will, at least, help Indonesia to be self-sufficient in the supply of spare parts, which is very beneficial in the event of a large-scale conflict