Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd. (IAI) will supply unmanned aviation vehicles (UAVs) to the Indonesian army in a deal worth tens of millions of dollars. This is the first time that Israel and Indonesia have publicly disclosed an arms deal between the two countries.
Defending his country’s decision to select IAI as the supplier of its UAVs, Indonesian defense minister Juwono Sudarsono said, “The people of Israel are the offspring of the people of Abraham just like Muslims, so this does not pose a problem.”
The Indonesian army has purchased IAI’s “Searcher MK.II” UAVs, which are also in service in the IDF. They are to be deployed along Indonesia’s northern coastline to prevent attacks by pirate ships in the Strait of Malacca, which separates Indonesia from Malaysia.
Indonesia published an international tender for the supply of UAVs and received offers from 42 companies from all parts of the world. IAI and Airkot of Russia were two of the three companies that went forward to the final bidding stage. Indonesian teams visited Israel several times last year to assess the capabilities of UAVs built by IAI.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on October 22, 2006
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