36 Navy warships need repair

36 Navy warships need repair

SURABAYA: A total of 36 Indonesian Navy warships are not battle-ready, says Navy Chief of Staff Vice Admiral Bernard Kent Sondakh.

Sondakh was quoted by Antara news agency as making this comment to First Gentleman Taufik Kiemas, who visited the Eastern Region Navy Headquarters here on Thursday morning.

The Indonesian Navy has a total 114 battleships but in two year's time the Navy will not have a single one if it does not carry out repair work to its fleet, Sondakh said.

The Navy is supposed to be helping the police to tackle widespread poaching by foreign fishermen.

Sondakh said a plan was afoot to modify 22 of a total 36 warships to patrol ships. The rest would be reinforced to improve their battle capacity, at a cost of US$ 180 million.

Sondakh also said that the Navy had 26 Exocet guided missiles but not a single one was in operation.

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Rokhmin Dahuri, who accompanied Taufik, said that Indonesia lost $ 3 billion per year due to fish poaching by Thai, Taiwan and Philippines fishermen. A total of 1.5 million tons of fish was stolen by the fishermen every year, he said.

Taufik was on a three-day visit to East Java to inspect Navy facilities, Muslim boarding schools and to meet with members of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle. --Antara