Indonesia can be called lucky to be given the F-16 eMLU facility. With this facility, Indonesia can carry out various upgrades and heavy repairs to its F-16 fleet.
Indonesia also has the ability to upgrade its F-16s. Even Indonesia was urged by the United States (US) to upgrade its F-16 to the Block 72 Viper. The reason the US urges this is because the Viper is better from all sides than Indonesia's current F-16.
Moreover, Indonesia is also gathering intentions to buy the F-35. But the US gave a condition that Indonesia must first buy the F-16 Viper or F-15 Eagle II.
Lockheed Martin as the Viper provider explained that it would be very risky for Indonesia if it did not continue the Fighting Falcon tradition
"Building a fighter aircraft support ecosystem is going to be very expensive, not to mention the infrastructure on the ground, pilot training and maintenance," said Mike Kelley, Director of Business Development at Lockheed Martin.
Former KASAU Marshal of the TNI (Ret.) Yuyu Sutisna once revealed that Indonesia was indeed aiming for the F-16.
"We will purchase two squadrons of fighter jets as part of our strategic plan for 2020-2024. We are aiming for the newest type, the Block 72 Viper," Yuyu said, quoted by Defense World.
Some of the F-16s upgraded version of Block 52ID Indonesia are currently stationed in Natuna. F-16s often patrol there and there is a formidable opponent, namely China's Chengdu J-10.
According to Air Force Technology, even though China is already very capable of producing advanced fighter jets such as the J-20 or J-11D, in fact they still need the J-10 light attack tactical fighter. The existence of the J-10 itself is classified as needed by China.
The J-10 has low manufacturing and operating costs but offers a practical solution for China to carry out various combat missions. The beginning of the J-10 was when the Commander of the Chinese Air Force in 1981, Zhang Tingfa, submitted a proposal to make a new fighter jet to Prime Minister Deng Xiaoping. Xiapoing agreed where 500 million Yuan was spent to make the J-20 prototype.
The J-20 itself is an early milestone for China to develop a modern fighter jet from the hands of the nation's children. There are three Chinese aerospace companies that have followed suit, namely Shenyang, Hongdu and Chengdu.
China then chose a design from Chengdu for the J-10. The manufacture of the J-10 has taken a long time after finally only in March 1998 the first prototype of the J-10 flew.
The struggle did not end there where it was only in 2006 that the government gave the go-ahead for mass production of the J-10. One year later, China officially operationalized the J-10 under the name Vigorous Dragons.
China's Nine Dash Line claim led Beijing to upgrade the J-10 to the naval versions codenamed J-10A and S. The naval version of the J-10 is capable of being launched from aircraft carriers.
Then recently China upgraded the J-10's capability to defeat Taiwan's F-16 Viper. It is the J-10B where this fighter jet is equipped with AESA radar, electro-optical targeting sensors (IRST) for tracking stealth aircraft and the latest WS-10A engines are more powerful.
Although it is only classified as a fourth-generation fighter jet, the J-10 is China's fighter with the highest readiness level. China's J-10 will be a tough opponent for Indonesian and Taiwanese F-16s.
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