A South-East Asian Integrated Air Defence System

The arrival of four Indonesian air force Su-27/30 Flanker strike/ fighters at Darwin in late July to participate in an air combat exercise was an important and symbolic event.

It is, after all, only 13 years since the Australian Defence Force led a United Nationsendorsed intervention into East Timor to facilitate the former Indonesian province’s transition to independence, an operation that was bitterly resented by elements of the Indonesian armed forces.