Indonesia navy’s chief of staff Muhammad Ali previously told reporters on Feb 6 that the carrier will likely be used primarily for humanitarian missions.
Ali also said on Feb 12 that the defence ministry is in ongoing negotiations and administrative processes with the Italian navy and shipbuilder Fincantieri, which built the aircraft carrier.
Under the deal, Indonesia is expected to bear the cost of restoring the decommissioned ship to operational condition. The defence ministry will allocate a budget for retrofitting or adjustments which span the ship’s systems, safety standards and operational requirements of the Indonesian navy, said Ali.
The grant-and-refit deal, combined with a foreign loan to fund acquisition and related systems including transport and carrier-optimised utility helicopters, will amount to about US$1 billion, according to defence and security news platform Defence Security Asia.
Aircraft carriers are large warships seen to demonstrate military and naval power and are part of a carrier strike group, an operational formation that includes the aircraft and an escort fleet of other ships.
Analysts previously told CNA that Indonesia’s geography as a vast archipelagic nation with numerous waterways and busy chokepoints justifies its need for an aircraft carrier, but limitations such as having no vertical-landing aircraft for the carrier limit the ship’s role in combat.
The vessel was designed to cater mainly to helicopters, jet and propeller aircraft capable of landing vertically such as the Harrier or the MV22 Osprey.
However, the aircraft carrier could also be repurposed to deploy drones for various purposes, including carrying deadly payloads, experts noted.
Khairul Fahmi of the think tank Institute for Security and Strategic Studies (ISESS) previously told CNA that the carrier can extend the reach of small drones with a range of up to 160km, as well as larger drones that can remain airborne for over 24 hours and travel thousands of kilometres.
He added that drones can also carry weapons, a tactic proven effective in the Russia-Ukraine war.
“A swarm of inexpensive drones can easily overwhelm an enemy’s defence system,” he said.
He added that the drones can also be used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions and would be very useful in stopping illegal fishing, smuggling or encroachment of our maritime borders and economic zones.
Some experts however noted that the scale and cost of operating a carrier could squeeze Indonesia’s finances, which are already stretched by Prabowo’s ambitious social, economic and defence programmes.
The annual cost of operating the carrier could range between US$50 million and US$80 million, according to Defence Security Asia.
Meanwhile, Abdul Rahman Yaacob, a researcher at Abu Dhabi’s Rabdan Security and Defence Institute said that aircraft carriers such as the Garibaldi and the Chakri Naruebet – the flagship of the Royal Thai Navy – are not ideal for disaster relief.
“Disaster response requires speed, flexibility, shallow-water access, and the ability to move personnel, engineering equipment, medical facilities, and relief supplies directly ashore,” Rahman wrote in an article in The Diplomat on Jan 13, and added that Indonesia’s carrier acquisition could put other Southeast Asian countries on edge.
“Neighbours and external powers are unlikely to view a carrier primarily as a disaster-relief tool, regardless of how it is described domestically,” he said.
