Moments before leaving for a working visit to Europe on Monday, deputy Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin admitted that Indonesia`s defense industrial cooperation with Germany, Spain, and France has long been intertwined.
"But Indonesia wants to re-establish the form of cooperation towards a joint production and marketing in a bid to support the national defense industry self-reliance," Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said.
He pointed out that Indonesian Aerospace company PT. Dirgantara Indonesia has established cooperation with European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) to produce main weaponry system (Alutsista) for the manufacture of light transport aircraft C-295.
"The light transport aircraft C-295 has more capability and capacity than CN-235, and therefore we want to explore a possible cooperation in joint production, joint marketing, and joint investment with Spain, Germany, and France which are involved in EADS, Sjafrie said.
He added that on the initial agreement PT Dirgantara Indonesia obtained the portion of 40 percent for the local content components of the light transport aircraft C-295.
"In the future we want to get bigger portion and license to manufacture such an aircraft and to be the major supplier to the market share of Southeast Asia," Sjafire noted.
He added that Indonesia also wanted to cooperate with Eurocopter in France to produce combat helicopters in addition to the light transport aircraft C-295.
For land defense, Sjafire said Indonesia would also explore joint production and marketing of Mistral 155-mm cannon and individual weapons with German special forces.
"Those are some main weaponry systems that we are going to explore joint production and marketing with the three European countries namely Germany, Spain, and France," Sjafire said. (*)
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Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
