Indonesia takes delivery of its first aircraft carrier, the former Giuseppe Garibaldi

Indonesia’s first aircraft carrier arrived at Pier 107, Tanjung Priok, at 7.58am on Friday. The ship is the former Italian Navy vessel Giuseppe Garibaldi, 41 years old, 180 metres long, transferred as a grant that Rome values at more than €54 million. A marching band played the Betawi song “Si Jali-Jali” on the quay.

Navy Chief of Staff Muhammad Ali said the carrier will be renamed KRI Sriwijaya, after the Sumatra-based maritime kingdom that sat on the Strait of Malacca between the seventh and thirteenth centuries. An earlier plan to call it KRI Gajah Mada was dropped. Re-flagging from the Italian ensign to the Indonesian one is set for 24 September. The ship is also booked as a backdrop for the armed forces’ anniversary on 5 October.

What the hull can do

The Garibaldi was commissioned in 1985 and left Italian service in 2024. It can embark up to 18 helicopters and about 830 people. It was built to operate short takeoff and vertical landing aircraft as well. Indonesia has not announced a fixed-wing air group. Ali’s public case is helicopters: firefighting, logistics drops, a moving deck that can reach islands the road network never will.

“There are many disasters in this country. So we really need a vessel or platform that could carry many helicopters, because the helicopters can drop logistics quickly to remote areas,” he said.

President Prabowo Subianto has given the same instruction in public: military operations other than war, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief. The navy is assigning about 310 personnel and is preparing support facilities in Lampung. A retrofit budget reported from Jakarta sits near S$517.5 million. The ship left Taranto on 24 August under Italian Capt. Marco Guerriero with a mixed crew, transited the Suez Canal, and called at Safaga and Colombo. KRI Brawijaya and KRI Prabu Siliwangi escorted it in from the Bangka Belitung islands.

Why Italy gave it away

Decommissioning a carrier costs money. Gifting it to Indonesia saves that bill and opens a defence conversation Rome wants: submarines and aircraft. The transfer was agreed in March. It makes Indonesia only the second South-east Asian state with a carrier hull. Thailand commissioned HTMS Chakri Naruebet in 1997, bought from Spain with AV-8S Matadors that have spent long stretches tied up.

A second-hand deck does not by itself change the balance in the South China Sea. It does give Prabowo a visible asset in a modernisation programme that has been buying ships, aircraft and munitions on several fronts at once. Critics at home have asked whether a 41-year-old Italian carrier is the right use of retrofit money when the navy still has gaps in patrol craft and sustainment. The government’s reply is the disaster brief and the price of zero for the hull.

What to watch after the flag change

Three facts will show what KRI Sriwijaya is for. First, which helicopters are assigned and whether any fixed-wing type is even studied. Second, whether the Lampung base and the 310-person crew are funded through the first full year. Third, whether the ship appears on a disaster tasking or on an exercise line with partners who treat carriers as combat platforms.

Until those answers arrive, Friday’s image is enough for the political calendar: an Indonesian quay, an Italian gift, a Sriwijaya name, and a president who wanted a deck that can hold a lot of helicopters over a lot of water.