The military leadership of Indonesia plans to significantly enhance its navy, particularly by acquiring an aircraft carrier for non-combat missions. In this context, "non-combat missions" refers to serving as a floating base for various types of helicopters.
One of the potential sellers of an aircraft carrier to Indonesia is currently Italy, which is set to decommission its former flagship, Giuseppe Garibaldi, in October 2024. This is reported by the Army Recognition portal.
As detailed by the authors of the portal, Indonesia is also exploring options to either build such a vessel independently or order its construction from South Korea. However, the nuance is that the Indonesians also wish to order the construction of a certain number of frigates from Italy, leading to the possibility that the decommissioned Italian aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi could ultimately be sold to the Indonesian Navy.
Moreover, in January 2025, Indonesia already purchased two multi-role patrol vessels from Italy based on the PPA design, which were originally intended for the Italian Navy, making this a rather illustrative example.
From Defense Express, we would like to highlight a few points in this story. Firstly, it cannot be said that Indonesia operates such a massive defense budget as its ambitions to acquire its own aircraft carrier suggest; the defense expenditures of this country in 2023 amounted to approximately 9 billion dollars. However, due to Indonesia's geographical factors as a nation consisting of numerous islands, it is vital to have robust naval forces with all components developed simultaneously.
According to data from The Military Balance 2024, at the beginning of last year, the Indonesian fleet consisted of four universal landing ships, 23 landing ships of various types, over 50 landing craft, more than 150 patrol corvettes and boats, seven frigates, and four submarines, with a total personnel strength of the Indonesian Navy amounting to 70,000 personnel.
The Italian aircraft carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi was launched in July 1983 and was commissioned into the Italian Navy in September 1985; its air group could include up to 16 aircraft or up to 18 helicopters.
The displacement of this ship was 13,850 tons, with a length and width of 180.2 meters and 33.4 meters, respectively, and a range of 7,000 miles at a speed of 20 knots. If Indonesia acquires Giuseppe Garibaldi, it will "join" Thailand, which has the smallest aircraft carrier in the world and no deck aircraft.
