By Dan Shea
Indo Defence is the Indonesian military’s third in a series of bi-annual tri-service expositions. It is a good, solid, Southeast Asian military show with strong regional military attendance. While not as inclusive of small arms as Defense & Security Thailand or Defense Services Asia in Kuala Lumpur, Indo Defence in Jakarta is certainly in the top shows in the region. SAR was able to view some regional manufacturer’s presentations as well as indigenous Indonesian developments. In a country of 80 million, that was over-run by outside conquerors in recent memory and freedom is less than a century old, one expects to find an active arms design and production infrastructure.
Indo Defence is a military only show with weapons, vehicles, electronics and kit, and there are many exhibitors from around the world. There are a lot of indigenous manufacturers and designers, as well as military academies that exhibit. This provides a window into the local manufacturing partnerships and purchasing opportunities.
The Indonesian military production groups and technical institutes have been busy; examples of armed robots and drone aircraft designed and made in Indonesia were in several places around the show, mingled with the expected major international manufacturer’s offerings. The Indonesian offerings seemed to hold their own on the playing field in the eyes of many military procurement personnel. Reports from the Internationals were fairly good, there are large vehicle and weapon procurements coming up and offerings from Sweden, Poland, Romania, Britain and the US were mentioned competitively.
The weather was oppressively hot and humid to any US or Euro-centric attendees, but the indoor exhibits were comfortable enough.
One Honorable Mention should go to the stalwart gents from Foster & Freeman, who travel much of the world with their forensic technology products. The products are state-of-the-art and their repertoire extends beyond the average offering – from fingerprint gathering to forensic data and passport forgery detection devices, and their LED based Crime-lite handhelds that are in 5 different levels for crime scene inspection. A bit off topic for SAR but many of our readers are involved in LE and forensics, so have a look. Website: www.fosterfreeman.com
The Anti-Helicopter Mine AHM-200-2 is a single unit mine that shares most of the characteristics with the below described 4-unit set, but is individual-set capable. It will detect a target at up to 500 meters, track it, determine if the helicopter is within height range, and only initiate if the helicopter is a viable target. The “kill” zone is up to 100 meters above this model of mine, although the danger area is higher.
The Anti-Helicopter Mine 4AHM-100 is also designed to destroy low flying helicopters, but is a squad operation to set up and far more effective. The mine unit consists of four individual mine warheads arranged in a square pattern with a combined control sensor positioned in the center. The warheads are each provided with built-in fuzes, which are activated simultaneously by the sensor through coded signals, launching the mines skyward.
The warheads are placed horizontally on the ground and the combined sensor controller is positioned on a horizontal platform at the terrain level. All components may be camouflaged through standard methods.
The fuzes are resistant to disturbances and have two levels of protection against accidental activation before being set into an armed state. The fuzes can be activated or neutralized by signals from the sensor after expiration of the programmed safety time, to comply with current international mine criteria.
The combined sensor consists of an acoustic type and a radar type and it is able to identify low flying helicopters either by DSP analysis of their acoustic signatures or by their Doppler signals. On a client’s request, the acoustic sensor can also “learn” to identify and select various types of helicopters. A control system processes the signals detected and sends commands for initiation on detection of a target or for neutralization/self-destruction on expiration of the pre-programmed time. On a client’s request, the commands for neutralization or detonation, as well as for the complementary functions, i.e. temporary neutralization and testing the armed state, may be performed by a remote control station through coded signals.
The mine can not be activated by occasional noises, moving people, animals or ground military machines, or by sideways or high flying helicopters. It is protected against activation by a direct hit from bullets or fragments, storm, heavy rain and snow, sand storm, etc., and is efficient in any climate conditions.
The mine’s electrical power is supplied from replaceable batteries assembled to the mine immediately before arming.
From South Korea was the relatively new Chiron portable Surface-to-Air missile (KP-SAM)
The Chiron is a man-portable, fire-and-forget system that is day-night operational with full night vision capability. It has excellent IRCCM and a two color seeker, and can be linked with alert systems via radio. The missile has a high terminal velocity using dual thrust propulsion, and is designed to give ground forces a portable method to counter fixed wing aircraft, helicopters, UAV, and cruise missiles. (SAR tried to gain more information on the anti-cruise missile claim, more on that in a future issue if we can substantiate it.) LIG Nex 1 Prudential Tower 11F~12F 838, Yoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, 135-983, Korea; Tel: +82-1644-2005; www.lignex1.com/eng/product/product_main.html
The best military museum we found was the Satriamandala Military Museum:
The Museum had an upper floor of carefully made dioramas showing important events in Indonesian military history, and the downstairs held a lot of surprises in that hundreds of small arms were on display. Heading back outside, there is a large cannon display with many historic pieces, and an aviation display as well. If you are in Jakarta, it’s definitely worth a side trip to spend time in this museum.
Jalan Gatot Subroto
14-16 Jakarta
Java 12710
Indonesia
Tel: +62 21 522 7946
| This article first appeared in Small Arms Review V13N4 (January 2010) |
