The Indonesian Navy Fatahira class frigate. A few days ago, the US "Defense News" website published an article saying that with the development and changes of the international situation and geostrategy, Indonesia has increasingly strengthened the security of the maritime passages and the maritime exclusive economic zone, and has made improving the capability of the navy a top priority in the development of national defense construction. Due to the weak foundation of the national defense industry and the lack of relevant budget funds, the modernization of the Indonesian navy is facing certain difficulties. The Indonesian armed forces mainly implement an active "island-by-island defense" strategy, taking the big island as the core and the islands as the base, and strive to improve the ability to defend the island territory, territorial sea and maintain social security. At present, the Indonesian Navy has more than 20 bases, equipped with more than 200 ships of various types and more than 100 naval aircraft. According to the "minimum defense force requirement" plan proposed by the Indonesian military, a naval fleet consisting of 274 ships, 10 fighter squadrons and 12 new diesel and electric submarines will be formed by 2024. In March 2021, Indonesia and Japan signed the Agreement on the Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology, which stipulates that Japan is allowed to export large military equipment, including warships, to Indonesia. The Indonesian Navy has planned to introduce eight Japanese top frigates. In June, Indonesia ordered six Belgamini class frigates and two northwest wind class frigates retired by the Italian navy from Italy. In September, Indonesia ordered two Arrow-140 frigates from the United Kingdom. According to the plan, these two frigates will become the main battleship of the Indonesian Navy together with six Belgameni class frigates. The Indonesian Navy plans to achieve the goal of having 16 frigates by 2028. In addition, the Indonesian Navy also plans to upgrade and transform 9 ships, including the Pachim-class frigates. According to the report, the modernization of the Indonesian navy has been slow due to practical factors. On the one hand, the national defense industry is relatively weak. Although Indonesia issued a national defense white paper in 2016, proposing the goal of establishing a "strong and independent national defense industry" in the next 10 years, and in April 2022, it also set up a "Indonesian national defense industry" company and announced the launch of the national defense strategic plan, there is still a gap between its national defense industry level and meeting the national defense needs of the Navy. The hundreds of tonnage maritime patrol ships currently equipped by the Indonesian Navy are all produced by Italy, Germany and other countries. The second batch of three Belgian-class frigates purchased from Italy was built by the Indonesian shipyard, but also completed with the help of Italy. On the other hand, the Indonesian army faces the problem of insufficient funds. Earlier, the Ministry of Defense of Indonesia had put forward a draft of arms procurement aimed at updating and upgrading defense equipment, and planned to invest $125 billion in the purchase of new equipment between 2020 and 2044 to improve the modernization capability of the military. However, from the current defense budget expenditure of Indonesia, the above-mentioned draft is difficult to implement, and the construction of the Indonesian navy will also be affected. (Outlook New Era)