Indonesia to buy Boeing’s F-15 jets, Lockheed’s Black Hawk helicopters

MELBOURNE, Australia — Indonesia has committed to buying Boeing-made F-15 Eagle fighter jets and Sikorsky-made Black hawk helicopters.

Air Vice Marshal Yusuf Jauhari, who leads the Defense Facilities Agency within Indonesia’s Defense Ministry, and Mark Sears, who serves as Boeing’s vice president and program manager for fighters, signed a memorandum of understanding on Aug. 21 confirming plans to purchase 24 F-15s. The event took place at Boeing’s St. Louis, Missouri, during a visit by Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto.

Indonesia’s F-15s will be known as the F-15IDN jets and will be a version of the F-15EX, currently on order by the U.S. Air Force. Boeing touts the F-15EX as the most advanced version of the F-15 ever built, with digital fly-by-wire flight controls, a new electronic warfare system, an all-glass digital cockpit, and the latest mission systems and software capabilities.