Jakarta. Indonesia received 12 units of the US-made combat vehicles on Monday as part of a multi-million-dollar contract.

According to the US Embassy in Jakarta, the Indonesian Navy had purchased 35 assault amphibious vehicles (AAVs), which could get troops from ships in the ocean onto a hostile shore and vice versa. The deal has a price tag of “more than $23 million”. The order also marks “the first significant foreign military sale purchase from the US in years”.

The freshly made delivery comprised 11 AAVP7 personnel carrier type and 1 AAVC7 command variant. 

Navy chief of staff Muhammad Ali — as quoted by the state news agency Antara — claimed that the US had given Jakarta a “special price”, which he ascribed to close naval ties. The remaining 23 vehicles will arrive in Indonesia no later than November.

Indonesia also sought to order 70 more AAVs from the US, the embassy said. 

President Prabowo Subianto had been candid about wanting to upgrade Indonesia's ageing military hardware. He recently pointed out that Indonesia's annual arms spending had only averaged 0.9% of the gross domestic product (GDP) despite the recent hikes. This is meager compared to Singapore whose ratio is kept at 3% of its GDP despite being among the smallest countries by size.

In 2026, the Defense Ministry gets to spend up to Rp 187.1 trillion (almost $10.4 billion). The government has raised the cap to Rp 189 trillion ($10.5 billion) next year.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had called on countries to share the burden of safeguarding the region as Washington didn’t want its allies to be too dependent. The world’s top arm supplier also named Indonesia among those that had made efforts to be self-reliant.

“Indonesia too is making important strides as it modernizes its armed forces and expands the scale of military exercises with us and our partners, strengthening interoperability and reinforcing regional stability,” Hegseth said in late May.

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