Prabowo Mentions Black Hawk Helicopters While Discussing the Garibaldi Aircraft Carrier

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – President of the Republic of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto announced that the aircraft carrier ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi (C551) from Italy will soon strengthen the Indonesian Navy. The country’s first aircraft carrier, currently en route, will be modified to serve as a base for helicopters and drones, which could be used to support the handling of forest and land fires (karhutla).

“Alhamdulillah, the aircraft carrier from Italy will soon join the ranks of our Navy. We will refurbish it, converting it into a helicopter carrier and a carrier for drones,” Prabowo said while chairing a limited meeting virtually from the Merdeka Palace in Central Jakarta on Monday (7/9/2026).

According to him, the ship will be able to accommodate up to 10 medium-class helicopters. Prabowo even noted that helicopters operable from the carrier, such as the Black Hawk (United States) and the Mi-17 (Russia), are capable of carrying around four to five tonnes of water per flight to forest fire hotspots.

With such capacity, Prabowo believes the presence of the ship and helicopters will strengthen the government’s response in handling forest fires, particularly when there are large numbers of hotspots. “So if we have 10 helicopters, they can immediately head to the areas with the most hotspots. This will greatly help our response,” Prabowo said.