Indonesian Presidential Aircraft

Indonesian Presidential Aircraft (Pesawat Kepresidenan Indonesia), also known as Indonesia One or RI-001 is the presidential aircraft carrying the President and Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia. The aircraft specifications was designed to meet the specific requirements of safety and security standard to support the VVIP air transportation needs of Indonesian President, which includes a modest counter-sabotage self-defense system.

As a sprawling archipelagic nation, spanned for over 5120 km from east to west and 1760 km from north to south, Indonesia is ranked among world's largest nations. To perform their stately duty, Indonesian President fly quite frequently across the archipelago or abroad. Naturally, to fulfill the air transportation and travel needs of Indonesian President, a special presidential aircraft is needed, either to visit Indonesia's 34 provinces, as well as to attend international summits and meetings, or to conduct official visits to foreign countries. This aircraft would allows President and his entourage to enjoy cross-continental trips in ease.

The construction and modification of the Boeing 737-800 aircraft started in 2011, developed from Boeing Business Jet 2 variant. The aircraft finished in 2014 and arrived in Halim Perdanakusuma Airbase in Jakarta on 10 April 2014. The call sign of this aircraft is "Indonesia One" with registered numbers "RI-001". The aircraft belongs to State Secretariat of Republic of Indonesia, operated by Indonesian Air Force (TNI-AU), and technical maintenance by Garuda Maintenance Facility.

Prior of having Indonesian presidential aircraft, Indonesian President and the Vice President formerly fly aircraft chartered from flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, or using Indonesian Air Force airplanes for their air travel needs.

History
Back in 1960s, Indonesia's first presidential aircraft was Ilyushin Il-18, acquired from Soviet Union government, and used by Indonesia's first President Soekarno. This aircraft was named "Dolok Martimbang", and stationed under Indonesian Air Force 17th Air Squadron. This aircraft however was not modified specifically for presidential aircraft.

The President of Indonesia and the Vice President formerly fly aircrafts chartered from Garuda Indonesia for air travel. Boeing 737-800s were used for domestic flights and short-range international flights; and Airbus A330-300s were used for most overseas trips and state visits. The Indonesian Air Force also has special VIP squadrons for the President, Vice President and government ministers. These are the 17th Air Squadron (Skadron Udara 17) operating Avro RJ85, Boeing 737-200, Boeing 737-400, Fokker F27-400, Fokker F28-1000 and Lockheed C-130 Hercules fixed-wing aircraft; and the 45th Air Squadron (Skadron Udara 45) flying Aérospatiale AS 332L-1 Super Puma helicopters. All those aircraft and helicopters are based at Halim Perdanakusuma Airforce Base, Jakarta. Almost all presidential flights depart from there. The Garuda Indonesia's and Indonesian Air Force's aircrafts was used by Indonesian presidents, since the era of Soekarno, Soeharto, B.J. Habibie, Abdurrahman Wahid, Megawati Soekarnoputri and during most of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration.

The plan to acquire a presidential aircraft has been contemplated since the Abdurrahman Wahid administration (1999 – 2001). On 3 November 2009 People's Representative Council approved the budget IDR 200 billion as a down payment for VVIP Boeing 737-500 aircraft. Indonesian State Secretariat put the cost to buy a new airplane into 2010-2011 state budget.



In January 2010, the Indonesian Government announced a USD 200 million budget to acquire a new aircraft for presidential and government use. The government insisted the cost of operating its own aircraft would be lower than chartering a Garuda aircraft every time the President had to travel. On 27 December 2010, Indonesian Government with Boeing signed a purchase agreement for a 737-800 Boeing Business Jet 2 aircraft.

On 20 January 2012, Indonesian Government received a "green aircraft" (plain "hollow" aircraft prior of any specific modifications) of BBJ2 variant of the 737-800 from Boeing Company, to be further modified and completed with interior and security features. The price of plain aircraft prior to modification is USD 58 million. After several delays the BBJ2 was delivered on 10 April 2014 and received by the Indonesia Ministry of State Secretary Sudi Silalahi.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was the first president that fly "Indonesia One" for state's duty, on 5 May 2014 from Jakarta to Denpasar, Bali, in order to attend regional conference of Open Government Partnership (OGP) Asia-Pacific.

President Joko Widodo first trip to fly "Indonesia One" was shortly after his inauguration on 29 October 2014. President Joko Widodo flied to Medan, North Sumatra, and went to Karo Regency to address the natural disaster relief efforts and to visit the refugees of 2014 Mount Sinabung eruption. In this occasion, the president was accompanied by first lady Iriana, Ministry of Social affairs Khofifah Indar Parawansa, and his daughter Kahiyang Ayu.

Specification and description
The aircraft was purchased with the price US$ 91.2 million or around Rp 820 billion, with specified cost of US$ 58.6 million for aircraft, US$ 27 million for cabin interior, US$ 4.5 million for security system, and US$ 1.1 million for administration. The aircraft could carry up to 67 passengers, can fly up to 10 hours non-stop, and able to land in short airstrip.

The interior of the airplane consists of several rooms. It has four VVIP meeting rooms, a master VVIP en suite bedroom, two VVIP state rooms, 12 executive seats and 44 staff seats.

The aircraft has two CFM56-7 engines, with service ceiling of 41,000 feet, a cruising speed of 0.785 Mach and a maximum speed of 0.85 Mach. It can also reach a maximum cruising range of 4,620 nautical miles or 8,556 kilometers. The size of the Boeing Business Jet 2 airplane is 38 meters long, 35.79 meter wingspan, and 12.5 meters tall. Its ceiling is 41,000 feet, with travel range up to 10,000 km and fuel capacity of 35,539 litres contained in 6 tanks.

Defense system
The security feature includes embedded anti missile system, the aircraft has a heat detector and also radar to sense foreign objects, missiles or other airplanes, near, around or approaching the aircraft, plus the ability to avoid the attack. The US$ 4.5 million worth of anti-missile defense system — deploys chaff, a cloud of thin metal sheets and plastic pieces, and flares — as a countermeasure to deter guided missiles strikes. Despite its VVIP security features, the aircraft is not armed with weapons and was not designed for combat. In addition, four pilots from the TNI-AU had been trained by Boeing to operate the defense system onboard.

Livery
The livery of Indonesian presidential aircraft is painted in sky blue on top and white on bottom. The two colour fields is separated by red and white strip, Indonesian national color, creating a long curved of red and white ribbon along the fuselage. On top and along the windows there are the prints of Indonesian National Emblem Garuda Pancasila followed by the text Republik Indonesia in black, on each sides. On the airplane's head right under the cockpit window there are Indonesian presidential emblems of golden star on each sides. On vertical stabilizer there is a print of Indonesian flag on each sides.

After the aircraft was unveiled, its livery and color scheme has gained criticism, some deemed it as "unattractive", some noted the similarity of sky blue color scheme to the United States' Air Force One, while other suspected its political connotation. Minister of State Secretary Sudi Silalahi, responded that the sky blue colour was choosen for safety and security reason, as a sky-colored camouflage. The colour is also widely used as the uniform of Indonesian Air Force that operates the aircraft. The sky blue colour was choosen as a unique identity, since there is no Indonesian commercial aircraft using this colour in their livery.