Indonesia will have the right to order up to 36 Rafale fighter jets from France
Indonesian media also emphasized that this is not an official sales contract between the two parties. The official contract is expected to be signed before December 2022. If the contract to purchase 36 Rafale fighters is successful, Indonesia will own the most powerful fighter fleet in the region.
International media said that the negotiation process between France and Indonesia on the Rafale deal was started two years ago. Initially, Indonesia even wanted to order a total of 48 Rafales, the total value of the contract could reach many billions of dollars. However, because the contract value is too huge, Indonesia is cautious because it is difficult to secure financial problems.
This made the negotiation process lengthy, as the Southeast Asian country wanted France to facilitate a credit loan. On the other hand, France announced its willingness to provide financial support for Indonesia. This is a fairly common direction of France at this time, they have also announced financial support Egypt for the contract to purchase 30 Rafale fighters.
Most likely, banks sponsored by the French government will support up to 80% of the value of Rafale fighter contracts for customers in need. The fact that France is very “generous” in disbursing huge credits to support foreign countries is said to be because the Rafale is an extremely expensive fighter.
Most recently, in May 2021, Croatia signed a contract to buy a Rafale fighter regiment from France, with a total of 12 aircraft, the contract value is up to 1.2 billion USD – equivalent to about 100 million USD each. Experts say that the price of each Rafale fighter is superior to other 4++ generation fighters, simply because it is sold with Meteor air-to-air missiles, with a combat range of up to 150 km.
