Indonesia has been pushing the U.S. to sell it F-15, F-18 and F-35 fighter jets, but finally agreed on only two models as the third could take up to 10 years to deliver, Pedrason said. The F-15s and F-18s are manufactured by U.S. aerospace companies McDonnell Douglas and Boeing.
Major powers such as France, Britain, Germany and NATO have also approached Indonesia lately to discuss the South China Sea. Pedrason said Subianto is slated to visit Britain early next year, after having made more than 20 visits over the past year in search for good armament deals, including in France, Russia, Turkey and China.
Manila will be Miller's next stop, after which he will head to Hawaii, from where he will attend a virtual meeting of defense ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the bloc's partners.
Pedrason said the defense ministry under Subianto has a grand plan of procuring more than 100 superior fighter jets, to add to Indonesia's current fleet of less than 60. "We'll have around 170 fighter jets at the end of it. Extraordinary," Pedrason said.
He did not say when the ministry hopes to achieve that target, but added Indonesia hopes to make available between $9 billion and $11 billion for new weaponry and military equipment over the next 20 years. He said Indonesia was also planning to take soft-loan offers from countries like France, Turkey, China and Russia.
As the deal for the new fighter jets could take years to come to fruition, Indonesia is planning to buy used aircraft such as the Eurofighter Typhoon, which can be delivered much sooner. Previous reports said Subianto was interested in purchasing 15 such aircraft from Austria.