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

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 slo ...

s or Multirole Light Frigates (MRLF) by Indonesia. They were originally built for the

Royal Brunei Navy The Royal Brunei Navy ( ms, Tentera Laut Diraja Brunei, abbreviated TLDB) is the naval defence force of Brunei Darussalam. It is a small but relatively well-equipped force whose main responsibility is to conduct search and rescue missions and ...

and named ''Nakhoda Ragam''-class corvettes but were ultimately bought by Indonesia and renamed. The class is named after

Bung Tomo Sutomo (3 October 1920 – 7 October 1981), also known as Bung Tomo (meaning Comrade or Brother Tomo), is best known for his role as an Indonesian military leader during the Indonesian National Revolution against the United Kingdom and th ...

, 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. In 2003 BAE Systems Marine was split into ...

(now

BAE Systems Maritime - Naval Ships BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...

). 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 ( gd, Baile an Sgotaich) 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 ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. The customer refused to accept the vessels and the contract dispute became the subject of

arbitration Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ' ...

. When the dispute was settled in favour of BAE Systems, the vessels were handed over to Royal Brunei Technical Services 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 ( id, Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Laut, , Indonesian National Military-Naval Force, TNI-AL) is the naval branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. It was founded on 10 September 1945 and has a role to patrol I ...

. 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 tubes, two 30 mm remote weapon stations and has a landing spot 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 flying the route crashed into the Java Sea, killing al ...

which crashed off the

Java Sea The Java Sea ( id, Laut Jawa, jv, Segara Jawa) 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 nort ...

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 , and had a population of 309,097 at the 2020 Census. Administratively, it forms two regencies (Bel ...

and

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

. Later in early January 2015, KRI ''Usman Harun'' was deployed to search for the

black boxes In science, computing, and engineering, a black box is a system which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs (or transfer characteristics), without any knowledge of its internal workings. Its implementation is "opaque" (black). The te ...

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 Sutomo (3 October 1920 – 7 October 1981), also known as Bung Tomo (meaning Comrade or Brother Tomo), is best known for his role as an Indonesian military leader during the Indonesian National Revolution against the United Kingdom and the ...

, the leader of Indonesian guerrillas during the

Battle of Surabaya The Battle of Surabaya was fought between regular infantry and militia of the Indonesian nationalist movement and British and British Indian troops as a part of the Indonesian National Revolution against the re-imposition of Dutch colonial r ...

. The naming of KRI ''

John Lie John Lie may refer to: * John Lie (professor) John Lie ( ) is professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. His principal academic interests are social theory, political economy, social identity, and East Asia. Early life an ...

'' memorializes the first

Chinese Indonesian Chinese Indonesians ( id, Orang Tionghoa Indonesia) and colloquially Chindo or just Tionghoa are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries. Chinese people and their Indonesian descendants have ...

to be honored as

National Hero of Indonesia National Hero of Indonesia ( id, Pahlawan Nasional Indonesia) is the highest-level title awarded in Indonesia. It is posthumously given by the Government of Indonesia for actions which are deemed to be heroic, defined as "actual deeds which can b ...

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

Indonesian National Revolution The Indonesian National Revolution, or 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 Aftermath of WWII, postw ...

. The naming of KRI ''Usman Harun'' memorializes

Harun Said Harun Thohir or Harun Bin Said (birth name Tahir Bin Mandir) (1943–1968) was an Indonesian soldier born in Bawean Island, East Java, on 4 April 1943 to Mahdar and Aswiyani, while another source stated that he was born on 14 April 1943. He wa ...

and Osman Hj Mohd Ali, who were executed by

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

after the

MacDonald House bombing The MacDonald House bombing was a sabotage attack on the MacDonald House building in Orchard Road, Singapore, on 10 March 1965, just a few months before Singapore's expulsion 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 Len or LEN may refer to: People and fictional characters * Len (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Lén, a character from Irish mythology * Alex Len (born 1993), Ukrainian basketball player * Mr. Len, American hip hop DJ * L ...

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 ) is King of the Netherlands, having acceded to the throne following Beatrix of the Netherlands, his mother's abdication in 2013. Willem-Alexander was born in Utrecht as the old ...

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 life of the frigate. An 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 defense capability.

References

External links