Indonesia signed a contract to buy 36 Rafale fighters from France , which is equivalent to 4 regiments, which can turn Indonesia into a country with superior air power in the Southeast Asia region.
According to new information published by Indonesian media, during the visit of the French defense minister to this country a few days ago, a protocol between the two countries was signed.
Accordingly, Indonesia will have the right to order up to 36 Rafale fighter jets from France. This is the number of fighters equivalent to 3 standard fighter regiments.
However, Indonesian media also emphasized that this is not an official sales contract between the two parties. The official contract is expected to be signed between Indonesia and France, before December 2021.
If Indonesia signs a contract to buy 36 successful Rafale fighters from France. This country will own the most powerful fighter fleet in the region.
International media said that the negotiation process between France and Indonesia on the purchase and sale of Rafale fighter jets was started by the two countries two years ago
Initially, Indonesia even wanted to order a total of 48 Rafale aircraft, with a total contract value that could reach many billions of dollars. However, due to the large contract value, the Indonesian side was cautious when it was difficult to secure related financial issues. This makes the negotiation process lengthy, as the Southeast Asian country wants France to facilitate a credit loan, making disbursement easier.
On the other hand, France announced its willingness to provide financial support for the sale of Rafale fighters to Indonesia. This is a fairly common direction of France at this time when the country has also announced financial support for the contract to buy 30 Rafale fighters from Egypt.
Most likely, banks sponsored by the French government will support up to 80% of the value of the Rafale fighter purchase contract for customers in need.
The fact that France is very “generous” in disbursing huge credits to support foreign purchases of Rafale fighter aircraft, is said to be due to the fact that this is an extremely expensive fighter.
Most recently, in May 2021, Croatia signed a contract to buy a Rafale fighter regiment from France with a total of 12 aircraft, the contract value is up to 1.2 billion USD – equivalent to about 100 million USD. for each pcs.
Analysts say that the price of each Rafale fighter is higher to other 4++ generation fighters, simply because this type of fighter is sold with missiles. Meteor air-to-air.
This type of modern French missile, can allow Rafale fighter to hit targets from a distance of up to 150 km – instead of only about 100 km like many comparable fighters today.