Indonesia Fails to Provide Payments Schedule for its Share in South Korean KF-21 Project

Indonesia has failed to meet a June 2023 deadline to provide a payments schedule for its share in the South Korean KF-21 fighter jet project.

Eom Dong-hwan, minister of South Korea’s arms procurement agency Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), told reporters in May that Jakarta will draw up a new schedule for its payments by end-June.

"[Indonesia] has promised to notify Korea of its payment plan for the remaining amount by late June," Eom said during a media event at the headquarters of Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang. "In order to ensure the payment plan proceeds normally next month, our project chief is scheduled to visit Indonesia soon for talks with high-level defense officials on its details.”

The South Korea-Indonesia partnership is aimed at developing a new fighter jet by 2026.

Indonesia had agreed to shoulder some 1.7 trillion won ($1.3 billion), 20% of the project’s total costs of 8.8 trillion won in exchange for a couple of prototypes and technology to manufacture the aircraft locally. However, it halted payments from January 2019 until its resumption last November.

Jakarta should have made a payment of more than 1.1 trillion won up to date under the contract but the government settled only 280 billion won so far, per reports. Eom said Indonesia made a payment of around 40 billion won in late February.