Indonesia Delays Decommissioning of Ahmad Yani-Class Frigates Amid South China Sea Obligations

20 Oktober 2017

The Indonesian Navy has delayed the planned retirement of its ex-Royal Netherlands Navy frigates. Move to ensure that the service can fulfil operational requirements and deployment obligations, especially in the South China Sea (photo : Joko Sulistyo)

The Indonesian Navy (Tentara Nasional Indonesia – Angkatan Laut) has decided to postpone the retirement of its Ahmad Yani-class frigates amid operational requirements that necessitate continued service of the platforms for about one more year, the service has confirmed with Jane’s .

Citing a TNI-AL source from the service’s Western Fleet (KOARMABAR), Jane’s reported in February 2016 that the country will start to retire the first of its six Ahmad Yani-class frigates in 2017. This decision was made at the 2016 iteration of an annual naval technical and logistics work plan meeting, and the intention then was to retire the class at a rate of one ship a year from 2017 to 2022.

However, given current progress of the Martadinata (SIGMA 10514)-class’ induction, and ongoing service obligations, this schedule has since been delayed by about one more year to ensure that there are no operational gaps in the fleet’s deployment capacity especially in the Natuna Sea where there is now an increasing number of unregulated fishing cases, said the TNI-AL.

Indonesia commissioned its first Martadinata-class frigate, KRI Raden Eddy Martadinata (331), in April 2017. The second-of-class, which will be known as KRI IGusti Ngurah Rai with pennant number 332 once it is in service, was launched by state-owned shipbuilder PT PAL in September 2016. The country is expected to acquire follow-on ships in this class, but a formal procurement process for this has yet to begin.

The TNI-AL’s Ahmad Yani-class ships were formerly in service with the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) as the Van Speijk class. After being in service for about 20 years, the ships were transferred to Indonesia between 1986 and 1989.

(Jane's)