Thales has delivered its first two Ground Master 403 (GM403) long-range air surveillance radars to the Indonesian Air Force, the first hardware to enter service under a 13-radar contract signed in 2023, as confirmed by the French defense electronics group on May 22, 2026.
The handover took place during a ceremony at Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base in Jakarta on May 18, 2026, attended by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto. The same event marked the formal induction of six Dassault Rafale multirole fighters, an Airbus A400M and four Falcon 8X transport jets, plus initial deliveries of MBDA Meteor air-to-air missiles and Safran AASM Hammer munitions.
According to Thales, the remaining 11 GM403 radars are scheduled for delivery within the next 12 months.
A 13-radar package for archipelagic coverage
The 2023 contract was placed in partnership with Indonesian state-owned defense firm PT Len Industri, which is acting as Thales’s local industrial partner on the program. In Indonesian service, the GM403 radars are being integrated with Thales’s SkyView Air C4I command and control system, which fuses radar tracks into a single national operational picture for the Indonesian Air Force.
For Jakarta, the scale of the procurement reflects a long-standing surveillance challenge. Indonesia spans more than 17,000 islands and roughly 5,000 kilometers from west to east, an expanse that has stretched the Indonesian Air Force’s existing ground-based early-warning network. The 13-radar package is intended to provide more consistent coverage and feed warning data into the Indonesian Armed Forces’ (TNI) air defense architecture.
Thales has been present in Indonesia for more than 45 years, with the GM403 building on an existing installed base of long-range surveillance radars in the country.
Guy Bonassi, Thales senior vice-president for Asia and Latin America, explained that the radar program was intended to feed into Indonesia’s domestic defense capability.
“By building up local knowledge and expertise, strengthening industrial capabilities and ensuring maintenance and support close to the end-users, we are committed to driving Indonesia’s sovereign defence ambitions,” Bonassi said in the company statement.
A broader French defense relationship
The radar contract sits within a procurement cycle that has made France the centerpiece of Indonesia’s current defense modernization. Alongside the Rafale program, Jakarta has ordered Airbus A400M airlifters, Falcon 8X VIP jets, and a follow-on package of French equipment as outlined in a letter of intent signed during President Emmanuel Macron’s May 2025 visit to Jakarta.
Indonesia is also pursuing a deliberately diversified fighter fleet, including 48 KAAN fighters from Turkey and a confirmed batch of Chinese J-10C aircraft, while retaining a reduced industrial role in the South Korean KF-21 Boramae program.
