The ''Bung Tomo'' class is a class of three Indonesian multi-role

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...

s or 'multi-role light frigate' (MRLF) bought from Brunei by

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. They were originally built for the

Royal Brunei Navy The Royal Brunei Navy (RBN), natively known as (TLDB) is the naval force of Brunei. It is a small but relatively well-equipped military force whose main responsibility is to conduct search and rescue missions, and to deter and defend the Bru ...

(RBN; , TLDB), and named ''Nakhoda Ragam''-class corvettes, but were ultimately bought by Indonesia and subsequently renamed. The class is named after Bung Tomo, a noted leader of Indonesia's independence movement.

Background

The three vessels were built by

BAE Systems Marine BAE Systems Marine Limited was the shipbuilding subsidiary of BAE Systems, formed in 1999, which manufactured the full range of naval ships; nuclear submarines, frigates, destroyers, amphibious ships. While the company remains active, it now ope ...

(now BAE Systems Maritime - Naval Ships). The contract was awarded to GEC-Marconi in 1995, and the ships, a variant of the F2000 design, were launched in January 2001, June 2001, and June 2002, at the then BAE Systems Marine yard at

Scotstoun Scotstoun () is an area of Glasgow, Scotland, west of Glasgow City Centre. It is bounded by Garscadden and Yoker to the west, Victoria Park, Jordanhill and Whiteinch to the east, Jordanhill to the north and the River Clyde (and Braehead ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. The customer (Royal Brunei Navy) refused to accept the vessels, due to claims by the Royal Brunei Navy that the ships fail to meet the required specifications; though opinion in the shipyard was that they were too complex for a small navy to operate. The contract dispute became the subject of

arbitration Arbitration is a formal method of dispute resolution involving a third party neutral who makes a binding decision. The third party neutral (the 'arbitrator', 'arbiter' or 'arbitral tribunal') renders the decision in the form of an 'arbitrati ...

. When the dispute was settled in favour of BAE Systems, the vessels were handed over to Royal Brunei Technical Services (RBTS) in June 2007. In 2007, Brunei contracted the German

Lürssen Lürssen (or Lürssen Werft) is a German shipyard with headquarters in Bremen-Vegesack and shipbuilding facilities in Lemwerder, Berne and Bremen-Fähr-Lobbendorf. Lürssen designs and constructs yachts, naval ships and special vessels. Tradin ...

shipyard to find a new customer for the three ships. In 2013, Indonesia bought the vessels for , or half of the original unit cost. The ships are now in service with the

Indonesian Navy The Indonesian Navy (, TNI-AL) is the Navy, naval branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. It was founded on 10 September 1945 and has a role to patrol Indonesia's lengthy coastline, to enforce and patrol the territorial waters and Exclus ...

. The ships were originally armed with MBDA Exocet Block II anti-ship missiles and MBDA Seawolf air defence missiles. The main gun is an Oto Melara 76 mm. The ship also carries two

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s, two 30 mm remote weapon stations, and has a landing pad for a helicopter. As 2018, the MBDA Seawolf missile was out of service due to expired, and there was plan to replace it with VL Mica

Operational history

In late December 2014, KRI ''Bung Tomo'' was involved in search and recovery operations of the

Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Indonesia AirAsia from Surabaya, Java, Indonesia, to Singapore. On 28 December 2014, the Airbus A320-216 flying the route crashed into the Java Sea, kill ...

which crashed off the

Java Sea The Java Sea (, ) is an extensive shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf, between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south, Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east. Karimata Strait to its northwest links it to the South Ch ...

between the islands of

Belitung Belitung (Belitung Malay: ''Belitong'', formerly Billiton) is an island on the east coast of Sumatra, Indonesia in the Java Sea. It covers (including offshore islands such as Mendanau Island), and had a population of 309,097 at the 2020 Cen ...

and

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

. Later in early January 2015, KRI ''Usman Harun'' was deployed to search for the black boxes as the ship is equipped with the Thales Underwater Systems TMS 4130C1 hull-mounted sonar. In late April 2021, KRI ''Bung Tomo'' was involved in the search for the then missing

Ships of the class

KRI ''Bung Tomo'' is named after Sutomo, the leader of Indonesian guerrillas during the

Battle of Surabaya The Battle of Surabaya () was a major battle in the Indonesian National Revolution fought between regular infantry and militia of the Indonesian nationalist movement and British and British Indian Army, British Indian troops against the re-imp ...

. The naming of KRI '' John Lie'' memorialises the first

Chinese Indonesian Chinese Indonesians (), or simply ''Orang Tionghoa'' or ''Tionghoa'', are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries. Chinese Indonesians are the fourth largest community of Overseas Chinese in th ...

to be honored as

National Hero of Indonesia National Hero of Indonesia () is the highest-level Orders, decorations, and medals of Indonesia, title awarded in Indonesia. It is posthumously given by the Government of Indonesia for actions which are deemed to be heroic, defined as "actual de ...

, who was also one of the first high ranking navy commanders during the

Indonesian National Revolution The Indonesian National Revolution (), also known as the Indonesian War of Independence (, ), was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during A ...

. The naming of KRI ''Usman Harun'' memorialises Harun Said and Osman Hj Mohd Ali, who were executed by

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

after the

MacDonald House bombing The MacDonald House bombing was a terrorist attack on the MacDonald House building in Orchard Road, Singapore, on 10 March 1965, just a few months before Singapore separated from Malaysia. The nitroglycerin bomb was planted by Indonesian sab ...

, creating a controversy between the two nations.

Modernisation

On 10 March 2020 in Jakarta, Len Industri and Thales signed a contract for the complete modernisation of the Indonesian Navy KRI ''Usman Harun'' multi-role light frigate's mission system, witnessed by King

Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands Willem-Alexander (; Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand; born 27 April 1967) is King of the Netherlands since 30 April 2013. Willem-Alexander was born in Utrecht during the reign of his maternal grandmother, Queen Juliana, as the eldest ch ...

and Indonesian Minister of Trade Agus Suparmanto. This upgrade for the KRI ''Usman Harun'' is expected to be completed by the end of 2023, and it will considerably extend the service life of the frigate. A final specification was drawn up, including Thales's TACTICOS Combat Management System, SMART-S Mk2 3D, and STIR 1.2 EO Mk2 radars, a Vigile Mk2 ESM, and two new tactical data links – Link Y Mk2 and a tactical data link that will be delivered by PT Len Industri, providing connectivity to Indonesia's military communications network and enabling the corvette to play its full part in wider naval task forces. The systems' commonality with those on other Indonesian ships would reduce training time and facilitate management and maintenance. Existing weaponry will also be fully integrated, and a new VL MICA surface-to-air missile system added; a significant boost for the vessel's air defence capability. KRI ''John Lie'' received the new Exocet MM40 Block III missiles in 2023, replacing the older MM40 Block II, with the upgrade works started in 2022. KRI ''Bung Tomo'' also received the MM40 Block III upgrade in March 2024.

References

External links