Indonesia has received its first three Rafale fighter jets as part of a multibillion-dollar deal Jakarta and Paris, a defence ministry spokesman said Monday.
The Rafale aircraft are part of an $8.1 billion deal agreed in 2022 by then defence minister Prabowo Subianto to purchase 42 Dassault jets.
The three aircraft arrived in Indonesia on Friday and are currently at a military airbase in the Sumatran city of Pekanbaru, defence ministry spokesman Rico Ricardo Sirait said.
“The arrival of these Rafale (aircraft) is an important part of the modernisation of the Indonesian Air Force’s defence equipment,” Rico told AFP.
He added that the planes are “ready for use” by the air force as the administrative and technical handover process had been completed.
During French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Jakarta last year, his then-armed forces minister, Sebastien Lecornu, said Indonesia had signed a letter of intent to purchase additional Rafale jets from French company Dassault Aviation, without specifying figures or a timeline.
Last year in November, Macron and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky signed a pact under which Kyiv would acquire up to 100 Rafale jets and other hardware.
Delivery of the Rafale fighter jets is only foreseen under the letter of intent over a 10-year horizon, although the production of drones and interceptors would start by the end of this year, Macron said.
Macron acknowledged that this was currently a “difficult moment” in the conflict, which was sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“Russia alone is making the choice to continue this war and to intensify it,” he told reporters alongside Zelensky, accusing Russia of having an “addiction for war”.
But the French leader said he hoped “peace will be obtained before 2027” when his own mandate expires, adding that there would then need to be a “regeneration” of the Ukrainian army so that it is “capable of dissuading any new incursion” by Russia.
The letter of intent signed at France’s Villacoublay air base sets out possible future contracts for Ukraine to acquire 100 Rafale fighter jets “with their associated weapons”, the French presidency said.
“It is a historic agreement,” Zelensky said.
France has delivered Mirage fighter jets to Kyiv, but this is the first time it has promised “cutting-edge” Rafale jets.
Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force (IAF) is gearing up to acquire 114 Rafale jets from France.
IAF plans to acquire additional Rafales under the Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) program. The IAF has also proposed acquiring two to three squadrons of a stealth aircraft.
In April 2025, an additional inter-governmental pact for 26 Rafale-Marine aircraft for the Indian Navy was signed, valued at approximately $7.6 billion. The Rafale-M has 95 percent commonality with IAF fighters, and thus a very high degree of interoperability.
Earlier, during India’s brief four-day war with Pakistan in May 2025, the IAF suffered a loss of Rafale aircraft due to a high-altitude technical glitch.
Pakistan claimed that it shot down multiple IAF Rafales during the clash. Though Islamabad provided no concrete evidence, China tried to capitalize on these rumours by promoting its J-10C jets (which Pakistan claimed shot down Rafales).
- Via: AFP
- Edited by ET Online Desk
