Indonesia to Buy 8 MV-22 Osprey Tilt-rotor Aircraft for $2Bn

Indonesia to Buy 8 MV-22 Osprey Tilt-rotor Aircraft for $2Bn

The United States has approved a possible Foreign Military Sale to Indonesia of eight MV-22 Block C Osprey aircraft and related equipment for an estimated cost of $2 billion.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale Tuesday. The prime contractors will be Bell Textron Inc., and Boeing Company.

Also included in the request to buy eight MV-22 Block C Osprey aircraft are 24 AE 1107C Rolls Royce Engines; 20 AN/AAQ-27 Forward Looking InfraRed Radars; 20 AN/AAR-47 Missile Warning Systems; 20 AN/APR-39 Radar Warning Receivers.

The deal will include 20 AN/ALE-47 Countermeasure Dispenser Systems; 20 AN/APX-117 Identification Friend or Foe Systems (IFF); 20 AN/APN-194 Radar Altimeters; 20 AN/ARN-147 VHF Omni­Directional Range (VOR) Instrument Landing System (ILS) Beacon Navigation Systems; 40 ARC-210 629F-23 Multi-Band Radios (Non-COMSEC); 20 AN/ASN-163 Miniature Airborne Global Positioning System (GPS) Receivers (MAGR); 20 AN/ARN-153 Tactical Airborne Navigation Systems; 20 Traffic Collision Avoidance Systems (TCAS II); 20 M-240-D 7.64mm Machine Guns; 20 GAU-21 Machine Guns; Joint Mission Planning Systems (JMPS) with unique planning components.

The proposed sale of aircraft and support will enhance Indonesia’s humanitarian and disaster relief capabilities and support amphibious operations. This sale will promote burden sharing and interoperability with U.S. Forces.

Editor’s comment: The proposed sale comes as a surprise as Indonesia was not earlier known to be in the running to buy the MV-22 Ospreys which are the most expensive rotorcraft in the U.S. and sold only to a handful of foreign customers.

At an estimated cost of $250 million each for Indonesia, the Ospreys which can take off like helicopters and fly like turboprop aircraft, the price is more than 3 times the comparable cost of attack/utility aircraft. In addition, the Ospreys for Indonesia do not come armed with missiles but only machine guns which limit their combat use.