JAKARTA (Reuters) -Indonesia may start negotiations to buy four more units of Airbus' A400M military aircraft, President Prabowo Subianto said on Wednesday, as the country continues to revamp its ageing military through a string of hardware deals.
The purchase of military equipment has picked up since Prabowo, a former special forces commander, became defence minister in 2019 and then president last year, with multiple deals struck for new fighter jets as well as submarines.
"We may negotiate so we can sign for four more units," Prabowo told reporters after a ceremony to inspect the arrival of the first of two new A400s at an air force base in Jakarta. He did not provide further details on the timeline of the planned negotiations. The second plane in the deal, signed in 2021 when Prabowo was the Minister of Defence, is expected to arrive next year, Airbus said in a statement.
The A400M is a large airlifter able to deliver heavy loads such as fuel trucks and excavators, food, clothes and medical supplies and can use damaged or short runways, Airbus says on its website.
The A400M is expected to help the Indonesian military respond to disasters inside the country or abroad, including Indonesia's expected humanitarian missions in Gaza, Prabowo said.
"As part of global community, we must help other countries who are in difficult times," he said.
Besides modernising the military hardware, Prabowo has also expanded the military's role in governing the archipelago, including assistance in the agriculture and health sectors, as well as to support his ambitious free meals programme.
(Reporting by Ananda Teresia and Stefanno Sulaiman; editing by Gibran Peshimam and Lincoln Feast.)
