Navy gets two German submarines

JAKARTA (JP): Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Arief Kushariadi has received the first two of five submarines Indonesia has ordered from Germany, Antara reported yesterday.

The two submarines were handed over to Admiral Arief by Dirk Horten, the German armada chief, in a ceremony at the Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft yard, Kiel, Germany, the news agency said quoting a Navy statement.

The SS206/450 submarines, formerly named U-13 and U-14, both commissioned in 1973, have been christened KRI Nagarangsang, carrying number 403, and KRI Nagabanda, number 404.

State Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie, who signed the purchase agreement, said early this month that the five submarines were formerly used by Germany for its North Atlantic Treaty Organization operations in the Baltic Sea.

They were being sold as part of Germany's defense budget cuts, he said at a hearing with the House of Representatives.

Given that Germany stopped producing submarines of this size, Indonesia would dismantle one of the five submarines for spare parts for the other four, he said.

Habibie, who is also president of state-owned PT PAL shipbuilding company, said Indonesia planned to build its own submarines of different sizes.

The SS206/450 submarine is 48.6 meters long, 4.6m wide and 4.5m high. It weighs 450 tons above water and 498 tons underwater. It can reach a speed of 10 knots on the surface and 17 knots underwater. Each ship can carry up to 22 personnel.

Arief said the two submarines would strengthen the Navy's capability in defending Indonesia's vast territorial waters and protecting its resources at sea.

The Indonesian Navy is equipped with mostly German warships. In 1994, Indonesia bought 39 ships from the arsenal of the former East Germany. (emb)