page_title: Indonesian Navy
section_title: At the height of the Cold War
hierarchical_section_title: Indonesian Navy / History / At the height of the Cold War
caption_attribution_description: English: RI Siliwangi
context_page_description: The Indonesian Navy is the 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 Exclusive Economic Zone of Indonesia, to protect Indonesia's maritime strategic interests, to protect the islands surrounding Indonesia, and to defend against seaborne threats.
  The Navy is headed by the Chief of Staff of the Navy. The Indonesian Navy consists of three major fleets known as "Armada" which are Komando Armada I located in Jakarta, Komando Armada II located in Surabaya, Komando Armada III located in Sorong, and one Komando Lintas Laut Militer. The Navy also heads the Marine Corps.
  All commissioned ships of the TNI-AL have the prefix KRI, standing for Kapal Republik Indonesia and KAL, standing for Kapal Angkatan Laut for smaller boats which have a length less than 36m, and made from fiberglass.
context_section_description: At the time the country started to recover from the threat of disintegration, in 1959, the Navy launched a program known as Menuju Angkatan Laut yang Jaya (rough translation - "Toward Distinguished Navy"). The Navy experienced a significant progress until 1965 which was motivated by the politics of confrontation in order to seize West Irian, which Indonesia claimed as part of its territory, a claim refuted by the Dutch government. As part of the increasing military ties between Indonesia and the Warsaw Pact, various naval combat equipments from Eastern European countries strengthened the Navy and become the dominant force at the time. Some military equipment of Soviet production served in the ranks of the Navy, among others Sverdlov-class cruiser, Skoryy-class destroyer, Riga-class frigate, Whiskey-class submarine (the first such vessels to be used in Southeast Asia), Komar-class missile boat, Ilyushin Il-28  long-range bomber aircraft of Naval Aviation and the PT-76 Amphibious light tanks, BTR-50 APCs and BM-13 MRLs (Southeast Asia's first ever MRL system in service) of the Commando Corps, the first of their kind in the region. With such power in the era of the 1960s the Navy was called the largest Navy in Southeast Asia and one of the strongest within the Asia-Pacific, outranking those of its neighbors in armament and prestige.
  By January 1962 the Indonesian Navy started preparing a couple of naval operations for the liberation of West Irian known as Operation Trikora, which began on 15 December the year before as part of the military component of that operation under the Mandala Command for the Liberation of West Irian (Komando Mandala Pembebasan Irian Barat) . Beginning 1 January, fast-ship torpedo vessels of the Navy were forward deployed to deal with destroyers, frigates and aircraft of the Royal Netherlands Navy. On January 15, 1962 Commodore Yos Sudarso along with RI Macan Tutul sank in the sea battle in the Arafura Sea. This battle is known as the Vlakke Hoek incident.By mid-year the Navy was preparing to organize its role in the planned Operation Jayawijaya which would have been the largest amphibious operation in the history of Indonesian military operations if commenced. The naval component was made up of 100 warships and 16,000 sailors and Marines. The deployment of forces preparatory to the planned landings in West Papua forced the Dutch to return to negotiations and reached an agreement to hand over West Irian to Indonesia.
  After seizing West Irian, Sukarno by 1963 moved his sights on Malaysia. Indonesia political confrontation against Neocolonialism and Imperialism (Nekolim) continued in Operation Dwikora to oppose the formation of Malaysia. Although elements of the National Armed Forces were prepared for operational deployments to the new state,  the operations were limited to the infiltration operation along the Borneo frontier. Soldiers from the marine corps were involved in the operations which targeted both the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak. The Marine Corps, though, would figure in the 1964 MacDonald House bombing in Singapore.
caption: KRI Siliwangi
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