The Government of Republic of Indonesia continues to make efforts towards independence of Defense System Major Equipment. The related policies are now under work with the Study Team of President Advisory Board.

In order to materialize the formulation, some members of the study team visited PT DAHANA (Persero), manufacturer of commercial and military explosives on Tuesday, May 15 2018 in Subang regency.

The seven members of the team are those whose job is to formulate Indonesian Army’s defense system major equipment. “We are assigned by the President Advisory Board member, MR Subagyo H.S, who is under the board’s defense and security section. The text under formulation, among others, deals with defense issues,” said Heri Mulyono, Chief of the Study Team.

“We have come here to Dahana in order to get more data as we are aware that DAHANA is in the defense industry,” Heri added.

The study team’s visit received a warm welcome from PT DAHANA (Persero)’s President Director Budi Antono, who was accompanied by the Director of Technology and Development Heri Heriswan. During the visit, the head of the study team said that the team is now working on studies about optimizing procurement and maintenance of major equipment for defense system for the sake of the latter independence.

“The study has been running for months; we have invited some related institutions for supply of data; we also have done some field studies, including the current visit to DAHANA,” he explained.

Budi Antono took the occasion to make introduction about DAHANA, ranging from its vision and mission up to the current condition. DAHANA, which was initially established under the Indonesian Air Force, has actively been involved in the effort of independence of major equipment for defense system.

“Basically, we are a strategic industry of state-owned enterprise manufacturing explosives. DAHANA is included in the 7 National Program for its participation of pioneering the propellant industry,” said Budi Antono.

As a business entity, Budi said, it is not easy for DAHANA to develop without the national government’s assistance and intervention. “We have prepared the road map for the propellant industry; we have the necessary operator and other preparation. The problem lies in our limited working capital and size of investment for starting the propellant and military explosive production and therefore, the central government’s support is required,” said  Budi Antono.

The road towards realization of propellant industry has come to several steps. The initial step was the construction of nitro-glycerin (NG) Plant, which is the raw material of propellant. The plant was officially opened in March 2018 by Republic of Indonesia’s Minister of Defense Menteri Pertahanan RI, Ryamizard Ryacudu. (SYA)