Fighter Fleet. The Indonesian National Defense-Air Force (TNI-AU) continues to plan and execute a long-term strategy aimed at modernizing its fighter fleet by upgrading existing assets and expanding capabilities. This effort dates back to phase one of the Minimum Essential Force (MEF) program undertaken from 2009 through 2014. The goal initially was to recapitalize the Air Force's fighter fleet, which fell into disrepair following the arms embargoes imposed on the country by the U.S. and the European Union in 1999. Once the last of these bans was lifted in 2005, the Air Force continued to struggle from under-investment, leaving its mixed-fleet, fixed-wing assets to atrophy further. That fleet included Block 15 F-16A/Bs, F-5E/F Tigers, SukhoiSu-27s and Su-30s, and BAE Hawk 209s. The TNI-AU also fielded badly aging OV-10 Broncos in the light-attack role. Under the TNI-AU MEF guidebook, the Air Force is to field 180 fighter jets by 2024, but its fleet remains nowhere near this figure and that goal is highly unlikely to be met. Instead, the Defense Ministry's short-term, more reachable (but still unlikely) goal is to acquire 100 new fighters, allowing the TNI-AU to operate 170 fighters by around 2024-2025. Air Force officials have cast a wide net for additional Western-sourced fighters, including the Eurofighter Typhoon, the Dassault Rafale, the Saab Gripen, the Lockheed Martin F-16V, and the Boeing F-15E and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The future fleet will remain decidedly mixed, much like the composition of the post-sanction legacy fleet. Key elements previously mentioned were Sukhoi Su-30MK2s, Sukhoi Su-35s, Lockheed Martin F-16s, and a future "4.5-generation" Indonesian Fighter Xperiment (IFX) fighter developed with South Korea.
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