Jakarta, CNN Indonesia -- Kementerian Pertahanan menyatakan belum mendapat laporan dari TNI Angkatan Udara mengenai dugaan kerusakan pada kerangka dan kanopi pesawat tempur F-16 Fighting Falcon bekas yang dibeli pemerintah Indonesia dari Amerika Serikat pada tahun 2011.

Sekretaris Jenderal Kemhan Letnan Jenderal Ediwan Prabowo mengatakan kalau pun benar-benar ada kerusakan pada jet tempur bekas dari AS itu, hal tersebut menurutnya tak aneh sebab kerusakan semacam itu kerap terjadi pada pesawat tempur.

"Soal keretakan, saya belum dapat laporan, apalagi yang ada di kanopi. Tapi ini sebenarnya lazim terjadi di semua pesawat tempur," kata Ediwan di kantor Kemhan, Jakarta, Kamis (17/12).

Berkaca pada perjanjian jual-beli pesawat tempur bekas antara AS dan negara-negara lain, Ediwan yakin Departemen Pertahanan AS akan selalu bertanggung jawab atas kerusakan pesawat tempur yang mereka jual.

Jika akhirnya TNI AU melayangkan laporan kerusakan pada F-16 bekas pakai AS kepada Kemhan, Ediwan berjanji lembaganya akan segera menindaklanjuti.

"Saya tidak menganggap remeh itu," kata Ediwan.

Kepala Staf Angkatan Udara Marsekal Agus Supriatna, pada beberapa kali kesempatan, bukan cuma mengeluhkan kerusakan atas pesawat-pesawat F-16 refurbished dari AS, tapi juga mempertanyakan kenapa jet-jet itu banyak yang belum tiba di Indonesia sesuai kesepakatan. Baru segelintir dari total 24 unit pesawat F-16 yang tiba di Indonesia.

Alasan AS tidak dapat segera menerbangkan pesawat bekas pakai itu ke Indonesia, kata Agus, ialah karena ketiadaan mesin. Negeri Paman Sam itu bahkan mengajukan peminjaman mesin F-16 yang telah lebih dulu tiba di Indonesia, untuk menerbangkan sisa F-16 lain yang masih di AS.

Menanggapi hal ini, Ediwan merasa tidak ada hal yang perlu dipersoalkan. Ia berkata, koordinasi teknis bisa dilakukan pada implementasi jual-beli alutsista.

"Itu tidak masalah. Kalau setuju, oke. Kalau tidak setuju, ya tidak. Syaratnya rambu-rambu pada kontrak tetap berjalan," kata Ediwan.
Lihat juga:KSAU: Beberapa F-16 Hibah AS Mengalami Kerusakan

Ribut-ribut soal F-16 bekas pakai ini merupakan hasil kesepakatan antara Presiden RI Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono dan Presiden AS Barack Obama pada tahun 2011. Kala itu Indonesia dan AS sepakat melakukan jual-beli 24 unit pesawat F-16 senilai US$750 juta.

Jet-jet itu sebelumnya dioperasionalkan oleh Angkatan Udara AS. Jika sudah dikirim ke Indonesia, Departemen Pertahanan AS semula berencana meningkatkan teknologi F-16 Block 32 itu menjadi Block 52.

Hingga akhir 2014, satu per satu jet pada proyek pengadaan Peace Bima Sena II itu tiba di Pangkalan Udara Iswahyudi, Madiun, Jawa Timur. Pesawat-pesawat itu tiga dalam dua gelombang.

Namun pada April 2015, satu unit pesawat F-16 bekas pakai AS itu mengalami insiden saat hendak lepas landas di Lanud Halim Perdanakusuma, Jakarta Timur. Jet tempur itu tergelincir di landasan.

Pilot Letnan Kolonel Dwi Cahyono langsung melontarkan diri ke udara untuk menghindari api dan ledakan.

Sejak saat itu, Agus menyatakan TNI AU tidak akan mengoperasionalkan satu pun pesawat F-16 bekas AS hingga investigasi serius atas kecelakaan selesai dilakukan.

sumber

nambah ongkos lagi ngirim mesinnya dan tentu saja tanpa penalty karena (hibah)


Jets refurbished in Utah bound for service in Indonesia

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah – The first three refurbished F-16s departed Hill Air Force Base this week on their way to Indonesia.

Crews combined for a total of 15,000 man hours as they worked to prepare the jets to fly again rather than be discarded.

Maj. Frank Taravella, chief, shoutheast Asia Branch U.S. Air Force International Affairs, spoke about the work.

“These aircraft were delivered in crates from the bone yard in Arizona,” he said. “They had to be torn down even further to bare metal, and each and every component removed and replaced before determined to be safe and operational to be delivered to Indonesia.”

The three jets are among a total of 24 aircraft that will be refurbished at the Ogden Air Logistics Complex and delivered to the Indonesian Air Force. The Indonesian government is paying $670 million to get the planes overhauled and ready for flight.

Col. Benny Koessetianto, Indonesian Air Force, said the jets will enable them to better secure their territory.

“With this jet, I believe it will strengthen our capability in doing, in sharing responsibility with other countries around us to make the region secure and also to protect our territory,” he said.

Taravella said the transfer of jets is a big deal.

“This program marks the largest foreign military sales program in the history between the United States Air Force and the Indonesian Air Force, and by delivering these 24 jets, we are pretty much tripling their fighter aircraft capability within a one year period,” he said.

Koessetianto said they are glad to partner with the United States.

“We share the same principles: democracy, stability, security--so this project represents the relationship between the United States and Indonesia,” he said.

The remaining jets are expected to be refurbished and delivered by 2016.

SUMBER

tahun pengiriman 2016

U.S. says giving, not selling, F-16s to Indonesia

The United States is giving, not selling, two dozen second-hand F-16 fighter planes to Indonesia to strengthen security ties with an "important U.S. partner," the Defense Department said on Monday,

Elaborating on an announcement on Friday by the presidents of the two countries, the department said Jakarta would cover an estimated up to $750 million to refurbish the late-model fighters and overhaul their engines.

The F-16 C/D models are decommissioned and no longer part of the U.S. Air Force inventory. Retooled and upgraded, they will contribute to Indonesia's "interoperability" with the United States, Navy Commander Leslie Hull-Ryde, a Defense Department spokeswoman, added in an email to Reuters.

Interoperability is the extent to which military forces are able to communicate with each other and share information to achieve a common goal.

"Indonesia is an important U.S. partner and a leader in Southeast Asia," Hull-Ryde said. "The Department of Defense is working to support the Indonesian military in their efforts to modernize the force."

Developing ties with Indonesia, the largest country in Southeast Asia and the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, is a priority for the Obama administration as it seeks to shape the economies and security of the region.

With arms transfers come training, closer military establishments and other ties.

The United States granted Indonesia, "without cost," the Lockheed Martin Corp aircraft and United Technologies Corp Pratt & Whitney engines, Hull-Ryde said, and the fix-up bill "is not expected to exceed $750 million."

President Barack Obama and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced the planned F-16 transfer in a joint statement near the end of a nine-day Asia-Pacific tour that Obama used to reassert U.S. interests in the region.

The planes will give Indonesia a "much-needed" capability to protect its sovereign airspace "without compromising the defense budget and other national priorities," the White House said on Friday.

The Defense Department said the C/D Block 25 models will be brought back to "essentially the same capabilities they once had when actively flying in the U.S. Air Force."

The airframes are expected to be upgraded to meet the Indonesian Air Force's current needs, Hull-Ryde said. They are coming from the U.S. Air Force's Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group in Tucson, Arizona.

The transfer of advanced U.S. weapons will help establish a longterm security relationship, partly because the complex technology of U.S. equipment requires regular collaboration between the United States and its partners.

U.S. assistance creates "strong incentives for recipient countries to maintain good ties with the United States," Andrew Shapiro, who heads the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, told a Washington audience earlier this month.

sumber