Marina dell'Indonesia …

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Un commento di “FlightGlobal” in merito all'acquisto, da parte della Marina Indonesiana, di Nave Garibaldi …

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Indonesia’s aircraft carrier acquisition raises questions over airpower priorities …

Jakarta’s plan to obtain the former Italian aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi will do nothing for national airpower.
The vessel, which Italy decommissioned in 2024 after four decades of service, is set to arrive in Indonesia in October, giving the nation its first flattop.
Apart from costly refits, the ship will be expensive to operate and it will take years for the Indonesian navy to derive a basic combat capability.
Little is known about the air wing. 
Some reports suggest that Indonesia will obtain used Boeing AV-8B Harrier IIs. 
The type’s main operator, the US Marine Corps, will retire its remaining Harriers this year. 
Italy still operates a small number, which may go to Indonesia, while Spain aims to keep its examples going until the early 2030s.
Training crews and maintainers for this legacy type will be a big task.
Keeping ageing AV-8Bs operational in Indonesia’s unforgiving littoral environment would be, to say the least, costly and difficult. 
Spare parts will be increasingly scarce.
Indonesia has orders for the Baykar Bayraktar TB3 unmanned air vehicle, which has flown sorties from the Turkish flattop TCH Anadolu.
While presumably the TB3 could also operate from Giuseppe Garibaldi, it would also be perfectly capable of operating from short, cheap airstrips dotted throughout Indonesia’s vast archipelago.
Another rationale put forward for the transaction is that Giuseppe Garibaldi will serve as a humanitarian and disaster relief platform. 
This would, presumably, see helicopters operating from the vessel.
But how often will the ship be at sea given the time needed in port for repairs and refitting? 
A rule of thumb in naval circles is that three vessels are required to fulfill a mission: one deployed, one in training/maintenance, and one in port. 
Thailand’s sole carrier HTMS Chakri Naruebet offers a cautionary tale: from 1997 to 2023 she spent only 12-20 days at sea.
Meanwhile, Indonesia has far more pressing airpower requirements.
The country has started receiving 42 Dassault Aviation Rafale fighters, but their effectiveness will be limited by the country’s lack of air-to-air refuelling capabilities. 
The Indonesian air force also has no airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft.
Other notable airpower shortfalls are in long-range intelligence, surveillance and electronic warfare (EW) - although the Rafales offer the modern Spectra EW suite. 
The country’s legacy jet fighters - Lockheed Martin F-16s, Sukhoi Su-27/30s, and BAE Systems Hawk 100/200s - are understood to suffer from poor data connectivity.
Moreover, despite its vast size and location astride some of the world’s most critical naval chokepoints, Indonesia lacks a capable fixed-wing anti-submarine warfare capability.
Jakarta could well make progress on some of these other defence needs. 
Still, for a country of limited means it makes little sense to channel resources into what will, in all probability, end up as a white elephant afloat.

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