Russia Offers to "adapt" Su-35 Jet to Indonesia's Needs

Russia has offered to "adapt" the Su-35 fighter jet to the needs of the Indonesian Air Force (IAF) to persuade it to buy the jet.

The development was reported by the tvzvezda, the Russian MoD's official channel quoting the press service of Rosoboronexport, the agency responsible for marketing the aircraft.

"Russia can supply Indonesia with the latest Su-35 multipurpose fighters, adapting them as much as possible to the needs of the customer. We are sure that this is the best choice for increasing the combat effectiveness of the Indonesian Air Force,” the report said without attributing the quote to Rosoboronexport.

This offer of adapting the aircraft to the IAF's needs puts a big question mark on the on the status of negotiations which are said to have been finalized in 2017.

No contract has been signed between Jakarta and Moscow for the former to buy 10 Su-35 jets for an estimated $1.14 billion. Negotiations have reportedly stalled over issues such as price calculation for barter goods, and the two countries not being able to negotiate a currency swap deal to replace the US dollar to fund the cash part of the deal.

Several industry sources had told defenseword.net earlier that a 2018 agreement regarding the Su-35 sale between Jakarta and Moscow concerned the mechanism of funding the sale (barter plus cash) and was not an agreement regarding delivery. The agreement also included a 35% offsets to be separately negotiated between PT Perusahaan Perdagangan and Russia’s Rostec.

According to recent reports, Indonesia is also considering buying Lockheed F-16s and F-35 fighter jets. It is even developing a new missile for the Air Force’s fleet of existing F-16s that are undergoing modernization.