LIMA 2023: Havelsan to supply CMS for Indonesia's new frigates

A computer-generated rendering of the Arrowhead 140 design, which is the basis for Indonesia's ‘Red White' frigate programme. (Babcock)

Turkey's Havelsan will equip the Indonesian Navy's new Arrowhead 140 frigates with its Advent combat management system (CMS), the company told Janes at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (LIMA) Exhibition 2023 in Malaysia.

The frigates are being constructed by state-owned Indonesian shipbuilder PT PAL, with steel cutting of the first ship in December 2022.

The Arrowhead 140 is the third different class of Indonesian warships planned to be equipped with the Advent CMS. Other classes include 90 m offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) under construction at PT Daya Radar Utama and KCR-60M missile craft built by PT Tesco Indomaritim.

UK defence group Babcock signed a design licence agreement with PT PAL in September 2021, which supported the build of two Arrowhead 140 frigates at the Indonesian shipbuilder's facilities in Surabaya. The Arrowhead 140 is based on the Iver Huitfeldt-class frigate design previously developed for the Royal Danish Navy. The project has been locally branded as the ‘Red White' frigate programme.

The weapons fit that has been proposed for Indonesian Arrowhead 140 requirements includes 12-cell vertical launching system (VLS) for medium-range surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), a separate 12-cell VLS for long-range SAMs, a 16-cell VLS for surface-to-surface missiles, two 76 mm naval guns, and a 35 mm close-in weapon system (CIWS).