Delivery of last warships this year

Delivery of last warships this year

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia hopes to take delivery of the last four of the 39 warships it ordered from Germany within the year, a Navy spokesman said.

Col. Totok M.K. Laksito said on Tuesday that the four remaining corvettes are still being renovated in Neustadts, Germany. Two should be delivered in August and the other two in October, he said.

Chief of Armed Forces' General Affairs Lt. Gen. Soeyono said earlier that the four corvettes took longer to deliver because they are being equipped with modern arms.

The purchase of the 39 warships, all from the former East German fleet, was agreed in 1994. It consists of 16 Parchim corvettes, nine Condor mine sweepers and 14 Frosch tank landers, each with a price tag of between $10 million and $12.7 million.

Though appearing to be a bargain at first, the purchase became controversial when it transpired that the project was costing over $1 billion when the costs of renovating and retrofitting the ships as well as building new bases for the armada were factored in. The government finally set a ceiling of $482 million for the project, heavily scaling back on additional expenses.

Totok said that the Navy had taken charge of 19 of the 35 vessels that had been delivered to Indonesia. The others were being renovated further by PT PAL, the state-run dockyard.

Seven Parchim corvettes are operated by the Navy's Escort Ship Unit, eight Frosch tank landers by the Naval Amphibious Ship Unit and four Condor mine sweepers joined the Naval Frigate Ships Unit. "We expect that those that are still being renovated by PT PAL can be operated within the next two years," he said.

Although already undergoing renovation before their journey to Indonesia, these vessels had to be renovated again on their arrival after the long journey.

The sailing from Germany to Indonesia takes around two months, sailing from Neustads to Brest (France), Malaga (Spain), Naples (Italy), Port Said (Egypt), Karachi (Pakistan), Cochin (India) and finally to Sabang (Indonesia). (rms)