<i>Indonesia trims Super Puma order, receives Kobra</i>
The Indonesian Air Force (IAF) is planning to procure fewer on-order NAS-332 Super Puma multirole medium helicopters from state-owned Indonesian Aerospace in an effort to accelerate their delayed procurement, according to the Air Force Chief of Staff, Vice Marshal Subandrio.
In 1989 the IAF ordered 16 Super Pumas to replace its aging fleet of Sikorsky S-58Ts but the program has been hit by funding problemsover the past few years, which has resulted in only seven units being received. Of these, it is understood that only four are operational due to a lack of spares.
However, on 8 January two days after the crash of an S-58T helicopter in Riau province in which one civilian died VM Subandrino said that the IAF would now require 12 Super Pumas in an effort to "speed up" the procurement. "Because of budget constraints," he said, the IAF would now only buy 12 helicopters.
Meanwhile, Indonesia has taken delivery of its first Kobra integrated low-to-medium-level air defence system from Poland's Bumar Group. Ordered for USD35 million by the Indonesian Ministry of Defence in July 2005, the system arrived in Indonesia in September 2007 and passed acceptance tests in November. Indonesian personnel trained on the system between September and December and it is now in operational service with an anti-aircraft unit of the Indonesian Land Forces. A second Kobra system will be delivered in early 2009.
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