Jakarta. The UK is forging ahead with its plan to help provide roughly 1,582 fishing vessels for Indonesia as part of a multi-billion-dollar maritime deal with British engineering giant Babcock at the center.

Last year, both countries agreed to a maritime deal worth up to 4 billion pounds (nearly $5.4 billion). The new commitment followed President Prabowo Subianto and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s announcement of a “deeper” strategic partnership in January. A few months later, the two nations formally launched the maritime partnership program, setting out a major building block for the construction of fishing boats in Indonesia using British shipbuilding expertise.

Babcock chief executive David Lockwood let reporters deep dive into the details of the ships. According to Lockwood, the vessels would be specifically designed for Indonesian waters, while making sure that the local fishermen would not have to worry about high maintenance bills.

“Getting the design right is very important,” Lockwood told a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday night.

“These ships are modern as they have fundamentally the same hull and engine. This way, it will be much more economical when the fishermen and yards have to maintain them.” 

Lockwood went on to say that Jakarta had formulated a scheme to make the ships accessible to the small-scale fishers. This includes leasing the ships to some communities while selling the others. 

British Ambassador to Indonesia Dominic Jermey told the same briefing that his government had underwritten the contract with the UK’s export credit agency’s support of “up to 4 billion pounds”.

“There is a massive commitment to ensure this is something that works economically,” Jermey said.

Babcock expects the ships to be in the waters within 12 months, according to what Lockwood called a “very aggressive timeline”.

Fishery Minister Sakti Wahyu Trenggono said that the ships would come in various gross tonnage (GT), which measures the vessel’s internal volume. The sizes start from 30 GT and can go up to 500 GT. Trenggono added: “It’s not a wooden boat, but a ship made of steel. The ships will be equipped with fish finders and monitoring technologies, but we are still in discussions with Babcock on the details.”

Babcock inked a series of memoranda of understanding that day, including with Indonesia's PT Citra Shipyard on shipbuilding and technology transfer. The former has also agreed to bankroll 30 UK government Chevening scholarships over three years. 

Government data showed Indonesia’s annual fisheries capture in the seas totaled 7.3 million tons in 2024. Beyond economic boons, Prabowo said back in January that Jakarta was hoping to “beef up the national protein consumption” with the fishing fleet expansion.