US Offer of Used Fighter Jets Fails to Fly With Lawmakers

The Jakarta Globe ^ | 11/15/2010 | The Jakarta Globe

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Lawmakers are not particularly impressed with the United States offer of 24 secondhand F-16 fighters, which would more than double the current Air Force fleet of 10 F-16s.

The Defense Ministry said last week that Washington had offered Indonesia the aircraft as a gift, and Armed Forces (TNI) chief Adm. Agus Suhartono indicated interest in the proposal.

But on Friday, Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the government would review the offer before making a decision.

Lawmakers agree, saying the jets should first be checked to make sure they are not junk.

“They should not only look at the quantity of the jets being offered, but also the quality,” said Mahfudz Siddiq, chairman of House Commission I, which oversees foreign and security affairs.

Teguh Juwarno, another Commission I member, from the National Mandate Party (PAN), said Indonesia should learn from the foreign gift of a secondhand submarine. “Even after fixing it, it failed to operate to its maximum capacity,” he said.

[kingattax]

indonesia probably doesn’t have 24 pilots.

[Old Sarge]

The Defense Ministry said last week that Washington had offered Indonesia the aircraft as a gift

Speechless.

[himno hero]

The emperor can do that! Assk him!

[Redbob]

I see Indonesian journalists don’t know any more about math than do U.S. journalists...

[rmlew]

Indonesia has 62 combat aircraft, 16 of which are F-5E Freedom Fighter IIs, which they are looking to replace. However, instead of second-hand F-16s, they are looking at coproducing the KF-X with South Korea. If this doesn't pan out, they'll likely just buy more Russian equipment.

[SZonian]

“a gift”???

[theymakemesick]

Great, lets give moslems more firepower.

[Svartalfiar]

Hell no!!

I would ask what he was thinking offering that, but its pretty obvious :/