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