Air Force wants new radar units

YOGYAKARTA: The Indonesian Air Force plans to buy six new radar units to be deployed mostly in eastern Indonesia which is considered to be the most vulnerable to airspace violations.

"We haven't decided which country we will buy them from, but they have to suit the existing system," Chief of Staff Marshall Hanafie Asnan Hanafie said during a ceremony to inaugurate the Air Force Monument of Struggle in Ngoto, Bantul, 15 km south of here.

Indonesia, which has relied mostly on U.S. military hardware, is currently facing a sanction from Washington because of the East Timor issue. The sanction includes a ban against sales of military equipment to Indonesia.

The government has placed one radar unit in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, to cover the center and western flank of Indonesia. (swa/09)