Navy to have infantry brigade

SURABAYA: Navy Chief of Staff Vice Marshall Bernard Kent Sondakh has said here on Friday that the Navy will have an infantry brigade within two years.

To that end, the Navy had forged cooperation with the Ambassador of Poland, he said, referring to Krzysztof Szumski in his talks with Navy officers in the Eastern Navy Headquarters here.

"We are at the stage of establishing military cooperation with the Polish government for that purpose," he was quoted as saying in front of more than 1,000 officers by Antara news agency.

Sondakh also said that the Navy was adopting a three-tier system for its fleet in the near future, namely battle ships, patrol ships and rescue ships.

The Navy has only 14 battle-ready ships at the moment, he said, but they would be able to deal with "low-intensity conflicts" wherever they were needed. --Antara