Last five hawks to arrive

JAKARTA: Five new warplanes, one Hawk-100 and four Hawk-200s, ordered by the Indonesian Air Force (TNI-AU) from the United Kingdom are due here in March.

Antara quoted Air Force spokesman Col. Mirsyahban saying yesterday that 12 Hawk-200s and seven Hawk-100s had already arrived.

Indonesia at present has 24 Hawk warplanes (16 Hawk-200s and eight Hawk-100s) stationed either in Pekanbaru, Riau, or in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, he said.

The Hawk-200, a bomber, is a new tactical warplane that can shoot land targets accurately, while the Hawk-100 can be transformed into a training aircraft for pilots before they fly a Hawk-200 and other warplanes.