Thread by @henrikrpaulsson

In honor of Indonesia's 73rd birthday (Merdeka!🇮🇩), here is a quick, and quite short thread on Indonesian submarines! It involves the Cold War, special forces, and pirates!

In 1952, Indonesia got 12 Whiskey-class subs from the Soviets, the first in Southeast Asia, and more than even Australia had at the time! They also got two additional ones that were for spare parts and training.

The last one left service in 1995(!).

When they got the subs, Indonesia had been independent for only a few years (declaration in '45, acceptance by the Dutch in '49), and had adapted quite an... let's say anti-Imperialist mindset. Imperialists seen as threatening to them at the time: Australians, UK, Dutch, and US.

Who would then be the logical arms supplier? You guess it - the pink commies of the USSR! Other than submarines, they also got a crap-ton of AK-47s, light tanks, artillery, MiGs, and even a few bombers!

The submarines were first used in real operations in '61, when they helped infiltrate Indonesian special forces into West Papua during their - what would be called hybrid war - conflict with the Dutch. The one pictured above (attempted) to land commands...

... and failed. They either drowned, got lost in the jungle, or got captured. At least two of the submarines were damaged during these missions. The conflict was escalated in early '62, with the Navy shifting to patrol-boats to land the troops... with some 150 dead Marines...

After the events of October '65, Indonesia shifted from being Soviet aligned - to western. They kept their submarines though, and these remained in the Navy, kept in various state of repair and actually did conduct patrols.

Perhaps the most interesting and memorable patrol, however, is the one time when a Indonesian submarine stopped a bunch of pirates/smugglers. Yeah. You read that right. A submarine caught pirates. As far as I'm aware, this is the only time that has happened!

Dirgahayu TNI-AL!

They later bought German Type 209s in '78, which have remained in service but have been quite poorly maintained. They rarely sail nowadays, despite having been overhauled at least three times.

In 2012 there was a training accident, with two senior sailors of the submarine force passing away. In many ways this pushed the Navy to finalize their purchase of new subs.

The Indonesian long-term purchasing plan, the MEF, included 12 submarines as a 'minimum' force. So they bought three new subs from Korea, upgraded Chang Bogo-class. Two of them have been delivered, while a third is being assembled from knock-down sets in Surabaya.

While containing decent systems, they lack weapons. Still. Some internal systems are missing as well - with a PT PAL shipbuilder lamenting to me how they'll be the people who will have to eventually put it in.

Mind you - the weapons and additional systems still haven't even been ordered. Which means now the Indonesians have two - soon three - submarines that basically are tubes that can go underwater.

Yet, the Submarine Force remains one of the most professional and well educated parts of the Navy. Proud and capable sailors, and the Marinir being called in for some of the toughest missions around.

They conduct counter-piracy missions at home and abroad, despite being chronically under-funded and under-strength.

Also they remain the only country to successfully use submarines for counter-piracy - take that China (ndtv.com/world-news/chi…)