Indonesia moves closer to ordering Scorpene submarines from Naval Group

After Romania and the Philippines, the Scorpène submarines of the French Naval Group are now approaching a probable order in Indonesia.

As we know, the Indonesian arms market is a complicated market, where announcements often precede actual decisions by a long time, with sometimes radical reversals in between. It should therefore be interpreted with caution the announcement relayed by Janes according to which the Indonesian Finance Minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati authorized her defense counterpart, Prabowo Subianto, to subscribe to a $2,16 billion financing plan for the acquisition of 2 new submarines.

However, this announcement could very soon enrich the Naval Group order book, today considered, with the Scorpene submarine, as the favorite of this competition, in particular against the South Korean model, long considered the choice of favorite of Jakarta.

Indeed, in November 2022, the French Naval Group and the Indonesian shipyard PT PAL signed a Memorandum of Understanding to prepare collaboration and technology transfer with the aim of building and maintaining the 2 Scorpène submarines which made the subject of an MoU signed by the Indian and French Defense Ministers on this subject, concomitantly with the order for 42 aircraft Rafale February 2022.

We should remain cautious about an upcoming Indonesian order for two Scorpene submarines. However, it is clear that the French model is today in a very favorable dynamic, being considered the favorite in Indonesia as well as Romania and the Philippines, these 3 countries being expected to have to effectively launch their program during the year 2023.

To date, with 14 examples in service or under construction in four navies (Chile, Malaysia, India and Brazil), the Scorpene is already a huge commercial and technological success for Naval Group, but also for the entire the French naval BITD which participates in its design, manufacture and implementation.

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