Indonesia to Reverse Engineer the Land-Based C-705 Anti-Ship Missile

08 April 2022

C-705 missile of the Indonesian Navy at Batuporon naval base (photo : Wiki)

The Indonesian Ministry of Defense organized a research and development group to reverse-engineer guided missile weapons to build its own precision defense industry. The first reverse-engineering target they found appeared to be the C-705 anti-ship missile in Mainland.

According to a report by Jane's Defence, the Indonesian Ministry of Defense stated in a statement on April 2 that for the purpose of independent defense industry, the Indonesian National Defense Team was officially established. This national team is under the Ministry of Defense of Indonesia (MoD). The Technological Industry Agency has brought in groups such as state-run Dirgantara Indonesia, defense electronics firm PT Len, explosives maker PT Dahana, and heavy vehicle and ammunition maker PT Pindad.

There are also two private companies serving as cooperators, namely PT Mulia Laksana Utama, a defense software authoring company, and PT Aero Terra Indonesia, a drone manufacturer.

Land-based Anti-ship missile with Chinese-made missile (photo : Al Arabiya)

Since the anti-ship missile has quite a few subsystems, including targeting, firing control, warhead, propulsion, flight, engine, etc., so many companies are involved, and in each stage of weapon disassembly, careful testing, reorganization and certification.

"We want to acquire advanced technology to gain the ability to build a local anti-ship missile industry and domestically produce weapons, which is vital to the goal of safeguarding the country's sovereignty," the Indonesian Defense Ministry said.

The statement from the Indonesian Ministry of Defense did not say which missile was copied, but the illustration attached to the statement is very similar to the C-705 medium-range anti-ship missile from China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC).

The C705 missile has a total weight of 320 kg, a warhead of 110 to 130 kg, and a range of 140 to 170 kilometers. It uses a small turbojet engine and a solid rocket booster. Guidance system  is a combination type of radar, television and infrared. Purchased by Indonesia in 2013, it is the main anti-ship weapon for Indonesian warships.

(China Times)