Indonesia takes delivery of its first aircraft carrier at Tanjung Priok

The former Italian navy carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi tied up at Pier 107 of Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta at about 8 a.m. on Friday, 18 September. Five Indonesian navy aircraft flew over the harbour as a marching band played the Betawi song Si Jali-Jali. The 41-year-old ship is the first aircraft carrier Indonesia has ever owned.

Navy Chief of Staff Muhammad Ali told reporters the hull left Taranto on 24 August under Italian command, with a mixed Italian and Indonesian crew. It passed the Suez Canal, called at Safaga in Egypt and Colombo in Sri Lanka, then entered Indonesian Archipelagic Sea Lane I. Two Italian escorts accompanied the early legs. Inside Indonesian waters the frigates KRI Brawijaya-320 and KRI Prabu Siliwangi-321 took over and brought the ship through Bangka waters into Jakarta.

The navy will commission the vessel next week as KRI Sriwijaya, after an earlier plan to name it KRI Gajah Mada. Sriwijaya refers to the Sumatra-based maritime kingdom that controlled regional trade routes between the seventh and thirteenth centuries. The ship is also due to appear at the Indonesian National Armed Forces anniversary events on 5 October.

What the hull can do

The carrier is 180 metres long. A navy spokesman said it can embark up to 18 helicopters and berth as many as 830 people. In Italian service it also operated short take-off and vertical landing aircraft. Italy retired the ship in 2024 and agreed in March 2026 to transfer it to Jakarta. Rome saves the cost of scrapping the hull and keeps a defence conversation open with Indonesia on submarines and aircraft.

TNI AL Information Service head First Admiral Tunggul said 310 personnel are already in training as prospective crew. The navy is also preparing a support base in Lampung. Officials have described the first operational use as a Military Operation Other Than War: carrying helicopters and equipment to fight forest and land fires that have burned across several Indonesian provinces this year.

President Prabowo Subianto has framed the ship as a disaster platform. Ali repeated that line on Friday. Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire. Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and seasonal fires regularly cut off islands that cannot be reached quickly by small landing craft. A flight deck that can launch several helicopters at once changes the speed of those lifts.

The second carrier in Southeast Asia

Thailand commissioned HTMS Chakri Naruebet in 1997 after buying the hull from Spain with AV-8S Matador jump-jets. That ship has spent long periods alongside. Indonesia now becomes the second Southeast Asian navy with a carrier in the fleet. The timing matters. Jakarta is mid-way through a wider rearmament under Prabowo, covering new frigates, fighters and a stated interest in submarines. Italy is one of several European suppliers competing for those contracts.

The gift also sits against a crowded waterway. The Malacca Strait, which the Garibaldi passed on the way in, carries a large share of East Asian energy and container traffic. China, the United States, India and Australia all keep naval presence in or near those lanes. A helicopter carrier does not match a nuclear strike group. It does give Indonesia a visible deck in waters it already claims as archipelagic sea lanes under UNCLOS.

Cost remains the open argument in Jakarta. A 41-year-old hull needs a yard, trained air crews, spare parts and a doctrine. Italy transferred the ship without a public purchase price, which lowers the entry bill and shifts the burden onto maintenance. Opposition voices have asked whether the same money would buy more patrol vessels for illegal fishing and piracy work. The navy answer is that one platform can do relief and patrol. That claim will be tested in the fire season and in the first long deployment east of Java.

For now the facts on the quay are simple. A European carrier that left Taranto in August is berthed in North Jakarta. It has a new name drawn from a medieval maritime state. Three hundred and ten sailors are learning the ship. The first task the navy has named is not a war plan. It is moving helicopters onto burning land.