At the moment, just a few Navies worldwide function plane carriers, that are widely known symbols of a rustic’s army may and its potential to undertaking energy far past its borders.
The three international locations within the Asian continent that function plane carriers are India, which presently operates two carriers, INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya; China, which has three operational plane carriers, Liaoning, Shandong, and Fujian; and Japan, which has just lately transformed two helicopter docks right into a service able to internet hosting the F-35B stealth fighters.
Indonesia is now positioned to hitch the group with a possible acquisition of Italy’s ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi plane service.
The top of Indonesia’s Ministry of Defence’s Public Relations and Data Bureau, Brigadier Common Rico Ricardo Sirait, stated on February 13, 2026, that the acquisition can be a “grant” from the Italian authorities, as reported by Indonesian information company Antara Information.
Nevertheless, the official clarified that the grant didn’t absolve the ministry of its monetary duties.
“The Giuseppe Garibaldi is a grant from the Italian authorities. The Indonesian authorities will allocate a price range for retrofitting or changes to fulfill the operational wants of the Indonesian Navy,” he advised the information company, including that negotiations and administrative processes are presently underway between the 2 sides.
The Indonesian Navy will modify the plane service’s expertise to go well with its necessities after the talks and administrative processes are completed.
Notably, Republikorp, a personal Indonesian agency, earlier stated that it want to modify the Garibaldi, ought to the switch go ahead. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Protection has not but made any official bulletins on the extent of doable upgrades or who will carry them out.
The most recent feedback from the MoD official come after Admiral Muhammad Ali, Chief of Employees of the Indonesian Navy, stated that the Giuseppe Garibaldi, Indonesia’s first Italian-built plane service, is predicted to succeed in the nation earlier than October 5, 2026, which is marked because the anniversary of the Indonesian Protection Forces (TNI).
“The Garibaldi remains to be in course of. We hope it can arrive in Indonesia earlier than TNI’s anniversary,” Ali said.
The remarks point out that Jakarta’s plans for the acquisition are gathering tempo.
If the procurement goes by way of, Indonesia will change into the fourth nation within the wider Asian area to have an Plane Provider.
In September 2025, Indonesia’s Ministry of Nationwide Growth Planning accepted as much as $450 million in international loans to fund the acquisition, plus associated tools and operational help. Later, an Italian Navy supply advised Janes {that a} potential deal may additionally embrace the switch of a number of AV-8B Harrier II brief take-off and vertical touchdown (STOVL) plane, however no particulars about which were disclosed by both aspect but.
The ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi service is a ten,300-ton vessel constructed within the Eighties, initially able to working fixed-wing plane like Harriers and helicopters. The vessel was positioned in reserve in October 2024 following the commissioning of Trieste, Italy’s new multi-purpose touchdown helicopter dock (LHD).
The timeline for supply, as laid out by the Indonesian Navy’s chief, is important as a result of the TNI anniversary is usually celebrated with a large-scale army parade and sail previous, and is usually used as an event to publicly show or unveil newly procured techniques and main defence belongings.
If transferred, the ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi may characteristic prominently on the keenly watched occasion within the Southeast Asian nation.
Nevertheless, this switch wouldn’t be freed from challenges, as Indonesia has by no means operated a service, so it’s conceivable that the service would arrive with a big Italian contingent. Moreover, a brief supply timeline means that vital renovation or modification work can be performed domestically in Indonesia upon arrival.
An Plane Provider For Indonesia
Indonesian officers have posited that the procurement would enhance the operational capabilities of the TNI AL fleet, particularly for non-combat army operations (OMSP), reminiscent of catastrophe aid, humanitarian support, and maritime safety. They are saying it might be in step with Indonesia’s Modernisation of the Minimal Important Power (MEF) coverage, which requires a number of missile patrol boats, 4 frigates, and no less than 4 helicopter-capable warships.
The acquisition may very well be a necessary milestone in Indonesia’s naval enlargement, enhancing its potential to reply to regional safety threats. The service isn’t primarily for high-end energy projection with fighter jets. As a substitute, it may function a helicopter service and, doubtlessly, as a platform for drones, such because the Bayraktar TB3 UCAVs.
Nevertheless, there may be vital dissonance over this acquisition. Some specialists have been extra blunt over whether or not Indonesia wants an plane service in any respect, particularly because it has been reeling with fiscal troubles and budgetary constraints. Questions have been raised on strategic priorities, given Indonesia’s deal with archipelagic defence and different fleet wants.
The proponents of the concept argue that, in an archipelagic nation bordering the world’s most disaster-prone space, the service would enhance humanitarian support and catastrophe aid efforts.
Nevertheless, as beforehand famous by The Diplomat, an plane service is “designed to maintain high-tempo air operations removed from dwelling waters, command complicated job teams, and sign strategic intent. These attributes could also be indispensable for world naval powers, however they’re poorly matched to humanitarian help and catastrophe aid (HADR) missions.”
“From each the tactical and operational viewpoints, catastrophe response requires pace, flexibility, shallow-water entry, and the power to maneuver personnel, engineering tools, medical amenities, and aid provides immediately ashore. Appropriate websites for air operations to ship support to the affected areas could also be broken and unavailable. Thus, deploying helicopters from plane carriers to ship support is probably not an optimum resolution,” it added.
Some analysts have argued that Indonesia ought to depend on its barely 7,000-ton LPD assault ships as a result of they’re smaller than Garibaldi, can accommodate helicopters, and might entry extra ports. In the meantime, others have said that Jakarta may construct a specialised civilian disaster-response ship as a substitute of buying a naval platform.
In the meantime, Collin Koh, an skilled on Indo-Pacific naval affairs and maritime safety, wrote on X: “Having numerous toll roads and highways earmarked as emergency army runways throughout all the archipelago makes extra strategic and operational sense than an plane service,” in a reference to the Indonesian MoD’s effort specializing in getting ready some highways and toll roads for emergency plane landings.
On February 11, 2026, Indonesia’s Deputy Protection Minister Air Marshal (Ret.) Donny Ermawan Taufanto stated a number of various touchdown factors would enable fighter operations to proceed even when main bases are compromised. “We wish each main island to have a number of base choices. If one is attacked, one other is out there. Some future toll street sections can be designed to function runways,” he added.
In actual fact, in an illustration on February 11, a Tremendous Tucano assault aircraft and an F-16 fighter from the Indonesian Air Power efficiently landed and took off from a toll street in Lampung province, positioned on the southern tip of the island of Sumatra.“This success marks an necessary milestone in strengthening the common protection system,” Donny stated.
Critics of Indonesia’s push to amass an plane service argue that current demonstrations—such because the profitable February 2026 trials through which an F-16 fighter jet and a Tremendous Tucano plane landed and took off from a Trans-Sumatra toll street in Lampung, spotlight the strategic worth of a “distributed” protection mannequin.
By changing sections of the nation’s in depth toll-road community into emergency runways throughout its 38 provinces, Indonesia may obtain dispersed air operations equal to “a number of cheaper plane carriers” scattered all through its huge archipelago.
This method, specialists notice, gives decrease danger and larger survivability in comparison with concentrating high-value belongings on a single, weak service platform, which may very well be neutralized by a single strike in contested waters.
For now, a proper deal to amass the growing old Italian service is awaited. Nevertheless, if it goes by way of, Indonesia will change into the most recent entrant to the unique “service membership.”
