Indonesia enhances anti-drone capabilities with interceptor missiles, rapid-fire cannons

Gusty Da Costa

With uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) posing a growing threat, the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) is refining its anti-drone strategy, including incorporating interceptor missiles and rapid-fire cannons.

The increasing number of combat drones and loitering munitions — typically explosives-laden UAVs that can hover above a target for extended periods — means “the drone threat facing Indonesia is quite dangerous,” Tangguh Chairil, a defense scholar at Indonesia’s BINUS University, told FORUM.

As well as state actors with advanced combat drone capabilities, insurgents and pirates could use low-cost, commercially available drones against land- and maritime-based forces and assets.

To counter such threats at sea, the Indonesian Navy deploys the Mistral surface-to-air interceptor missile on its five Ahmad Yani-class frigates and four Diponegoro-class corvettes, along with the Oerlikon Millennium Gun on its two Martadinata-class frigates. It plans to deploy the cannon on additional frigates and offshore patrol vessels.

The TNI is expected to add four Diponegoro-class corvettes and four Martadinata-class frigates.

The French-made Mistral is a close-in weapon system that can protect vessels against aircraft, drones and missiles, Chairil said. It travels at nearly 1 kilometer per second and can intercept targets at a range of 8 kilometers and an altitude of 6 kilometers.

The German-manufactured Oerlikon Millennium “also plays an important role given the fast launch speed of its bullets and its firing range and destruction power,” Jakarta-based defense analyst Ade P. Marboen told FORUM. “It is very effective in destroying targets in the air.”

The Indonesian Army deploys the Polish-made Grom shoulder-fired, air-defense system, including to protect assets in Jakarta, northern Sumatra and the Riau Islands, Marboen said.

The Indonesian Air Force’s infantry and special forces corps, known as Kopasgat, is equipped with the Oerlikon Skyshield air-defense system, also produced by German company Rheinmetall.

Like the Millennium Gun, Skyshield uses ammunition known as advanced hit efficiency and destruction, which disperses a cloud of tungsten projectiles to destroy or disable small, fast-moving targets such as drones. It is designed for rapid engagement of threats with a high degree of automation.

Local defense firm PT OCWSB partners with Rheinmetall to provide maintenance and repair services for Oerlikon weapons systems in Indonesia.

During the Indonesian Air Force’s Hardha Marutha III exercise in May 2024, the Kopasgat III Commando Wing deployed the Skyshield for a simulated air base assault, the TNI reported.

The rapid-fire capabilities of the Millennium Gun and Skyshield make them ideal for anti-drone operations, according to Soleman Ponto, former chief of the TNI’s Strategic Intelligence Agency.

“If there are many drones coming at you, it’s difficult to shoot them one by one,” he told FORUM. “But at 3,000 bullets per minute, then many are hit.”

Gusty Da Costa is a FORUM contributor based in Jakarta, Indonesia.