Indonesian Navy Upgrades Corvette with Thales’ Kingklip Sonar

As the Indonesian Navy steps up its modernisation efforts, Thales has been journeying alongside them for over 40 years as the appointed supplier of combat systems for all the country’s warships in-service.  This year, Thales marked another milestone with the Navy with the successful installation and integration of the Kingklip hull-mounted sonar on the Navy’s Diponegoro-class corvette.

The upgrade follows a repair of the corvette which was damaged in an accident during a routine sea operation in January 2015. By updating the operator console, signal processing and hardware technology, Thales enabled the Indonesian navy to achieve a boost in sonar performance for its warship as well as enhanced communicative capabilities between the user and the machine through the human machine interface (HMI), which is already installed on the Perusak Kawal Rudal (PKR) class frigate.

Remarked Erik-Jan Raatgerink, Country Director for Thales in Indonesia, “We are proud to be part of the Indonesian Navy’s modernisation ambitions by supporting them in the refurbishment of the sonar system on its warships. As the leading supplier and integrator of mission and combat systems for multiple naval programmes in Indonesia, this is telling of the trust the Indonesian Navy has in Thales to continuously share expertise and deliver excellent support.”

By working closely with local industrial partner PT Dharma Satya Nusantara (DSN) on the repair of the system, Thales is reinforcing its commitment to establish long-term relationships with local industrial partners and facilitate the transfer of knowledge and expertise as Indonesia builds its local defence capabilities.