LIPI ready to meet radar demand

Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) says it has met specifications set by the Indonesian Navy after successfully develop maritime radars.

The institute announced Monday that it had successfully developed maritime radar technology in collaboration with the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands. The radar is able to detect any object entering Indonesian territorial waters.

"The Defense Ministry has ordered three maritime radars with a coverage of about 35 nautical miles each," said LIPI's radar project head researcher Mashury Wahab on Thursday.

Mashury, who attended a two-day radar seminar at LIPI headquarters, said the Navy required a radar with a minimum coverage of 20 nautical miles.

The institute said, however, that further research is still required to meet specifications set by the Air Force.

"Usually, it takes about six months to build a radar after the order is placed. The manufacturing time for each unit for an institution may also vary as a radar is usually ordered for customization," he said.

"Military and civil radars, such as for the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG), have different characteristics and specifications."

As for the Air Force, Mashury said LIPI was already planning to develop a more sophisticated radar system.

"Our partner from the Technical University of Delft is optimistic that we could develop the radar, as they have enough expertise."

Local engineers, he said, were already able to repair foreign radars used by the Air Force.

The Air Force, which currently uses radars imported from the U.K. and France, said it would use domestically-produced radars developed by LIPI provided they have a coverage of 250 nautical miles.

It is estimated that the cost of using domestically-produced radars is one-tenth the cost of using imported radars.

Umar Anggara Jenie, LIPI's chairman, told The Jakarta Post that the further development and implementation of domestically-produced radars would have to occur in phases.

"We should first apply the currently available technology before reaching the next level," he said.

"A leap in such technology, such as in the enlargement of the radar's radius, cannot be achieved without using the currently available technology first."

Mashury insisted the advancement of local radar technology should be balanced with the establishment of a supporting organization.

"Indonesia needs a national radar organization as a means of communication between related institutions. It'll become a forum for exchanging ideas and to collaborate in research," he said.

He proposed that the organization should consist of highly-ranked officials, such as government ministers dealing with defense, research and technology affairs, chairpersons of LIPI, BMG and the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, as well as representatives from state airport operators PT Angkasa Pura I and II.

Dean of the School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics at the Bandung Institute of Technology, Adang Suwandi Ahmad, said that prior to reaching the manufacturing stage, radars should be subject to testing and certification phases.

"Then we also need supporting industries such as the state-owned aircraft maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia," he said.