According to foreign media reports, recently, Indonesian President Prabowo said during his visit to Türkiye that Indonesia intends to participate in the joint research and development of Türkiye's fifth-generation fighter "Khan" project. This move is seen as an important shift in Indonesia's defense procurement policy from relying on traditional Western allies to in-depth cooperation with emerging defense industry partners.

  Türkiye's fifth-generation fighter "Khan" project was launched at the end of 2010 and was led by Turkish Aerospace Industry Corporation. In February 2024, the fighter completed its first flight and has entered the late stage of research and development. It is expected that preliminary production will start in the short term. In addition to Indonesia, many countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have also expressed their intention to cooperate with the Khan fighter jet project. However, to establish a formal cooperative relationship, all parties still need to conduct in-depth negotiations on a series of complex issues such as technology sharing mechanisms, financial investment arrangements, and division of labor in industrial production.

  At present, the details of Indonesia and Türkiye's cooperation in the Khan fighter project have not been announced to the public. Some media have speculated based on the analysis of the past cooperation models between the two sides that this cooperation may continue the phased and progressive technical cooperation path adopted by Indonesia when introducing Türkiye's TB-3 drone. If the two parties reach a cooperation agreement, from the early stages of 2025 to 2027, Indonesia will obtain the technology transfer of some subsystems through capital investment, and send a team of engineers to Turkey to participate in project research and development; from the mid-stage stages of 2028 to 2030, the two parties will jointly carry out the production of fuselage components and weapons systems, and at the same time set up a composite material processing center in Indonesia; from 2031, Indonesia will build a local assembly production line and assume the functions of the Southeast Asian maintenance center of this type of aircraft.

  At the joint press conference, Indonesia and Turkey expressed their willingness to deepen the partnership. For Indonesia, joining the Khan fighter project is mainly based on the following strategic considerations.

  Solve the Air Force’s transformation problem. A research report from the Singapore Rajalenan International Research Institute pointed out that the Indonesian Air Force has long been plagued by the mixed equipment system. Its main models include US-made F-16 fighter jets, Russian-made Su-30 fighter jets and British "Eagle" trainer jets. This multi-source equipment structure leads to high logistics and maintenance costs and poor stability of the parts supply chain. The Khan fighter project provides Indonesia with new opportunities for technological upgrades. By participating in joint research and development, Indonesia can not only directly obtain advanced combat platforms, but also use technology transfer to improve the level of the local aviation industry and gradually reduce its dependence on foreign-purchased weapons and equipment.

  Hedge against the competition risks of major powers. As one of the founding members of the "Non-Aligned Movement", Indonesia has always been cautious about avoiding being involved in the game of big powers. Prabowo stressed that "Indonesia must maintain strategic autonomy and defense cooperation should not be subject to geopolitical coercion." Cooperation with Turkey will help Indonesia reduce its dependence on a single weapon supplier. At the same time, with Turkey's "earth-to-earth" diplomatic strategy, it will seek strategic balance between major powers and expand its own strategic maverick space.

  Reshape the foundation of national defense industry. Indonesia's defense industry foundation is relatively weak and has encountered many setbacks in many multinational projects it has participated in in the past. Taking the KF-21 fighter project led by South Korea as an example, although Indonesia promised to bear 20% of the R&D costs, it only paid US$750 million as of 2025, and the cooperation between the two sides has stalled due to technical leak disputes. In contrast, Türkiye's "joint production + technology sharing" model proposed is more attractive. Turkish Aerospace Industry Corporation plans to achieve the production capacity of two "Khan" fighter jets per month by 2029. If Indonesia can deeply integrate into its supply chain system, it will inject strong impetus into the development of local aviation manufacturing.

  In the future, Indonesia may adopt a "cooperation for time" strategy in the short term, and avoid repeating the mistakes of the KF-21 project by clarifying the technology transfer list with Turkey, finalizing the payment mechanism, and even considering using natural resources to offset part of the R&D expenses. At the same time, in accordance with the national development vision of "Golden Indonesia 2045", in order to achieve the long-term goal of building an independent defense system, Indonesia may transform the "Khan" fighter project into an important support for local capacity building through ASEAN defense cooperation and strengthening key talent training.

  It is worth noting that during this visit, Prabowo also expressed his intention to participate in Türkiye's "National Submarine" project. However, there are still many political and economic constraints in Indonesia. If handled improperly, its new plan in the field of defense cooperation may be hindered, and the subsequent development trend of related cooperation needs to be further observed.

[Editor in charge: Gao Qiang]