Navy to buy 48 patrol vessels

JAKARTA: Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Bernard K. Sondakh said on Wednesdaythe Navy would give priority to the planned purchase of 48 more patrol vessels to complement the 22 existing ones.

"The Navy has sent a team of defense experts to East European countries, especially Poland, to seek cheap but good-quality products with after-sale warranties," he said after swearing in Rear Admiral Djoko Sumaryono as new chief of the Navy's Western Fleet, to replace Rear Admiral Sumardjono, in a simple ceremony here.

Sumardjono will have a new job as assistant to the Navy chief on planning and budgetary affairs.

Sondakh said the planned purchase of military equipment from Eastern Europe had nothing to do with the embargo imposed by Western Europe and the U.S. on the military on account of alleged human rights abuses in East Timor in the past.

"The main problem is the shortage of funds," he said.

He implied that the Navy would continue to supply patrol vessels from state-owned PT PAL but it was in urgent need of such ships to deal with violations by foreign ships in Indonesian waters. --JP