"The reform of the Indonesian main weaponry system is slower than that of other countries," the defense minister said.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the government was committed to reforming and modernizing the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI)`s weaponry system in accordance with the trend of threats.
"The reform of the Indonesian main weaponry system is slower than that of other countries," the defense minister said when he bode farewell to an Indonesian KFX jet-fighter production team to South Korea here on Monday.
He said that that was instead of the fact that the Indonesian macro economic growth was undergoing a positive growth. "Wherever in this world, a country whose economy is growing well, its defense is also developed well," the minister said.
The minister said that the government had produced a blue print on the modernization of the TNI weapon system, namely to meet the minimum essential forces` need (MEF) which would be carried out in stages up to 2024.
"In order to meet the MEF need we have set three steps to be taken, namely giving a priority to domestic products for weapons that could already been produced at home," he said.
The second step he said was to cooperate or having a joint production scheme with a number countries to produce the weapons while at the same time carrying out technological transfer.
"The third one is to wait for the readiness of our arms industry to meet the need of the TNI for main weapons. This can be taken but it will be longer than 2024," he said.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
