Indonesia fires torpedo from autonomous submarine

Indonesia's KSOT seen here loading a torpedo round ahead of its inaugural firing exercise. (PT PAL)

Indonesia's Ministry of Defense (MoD) and state-owned shipbuilder PT PAL announced on 30 October that the country has for the first time fired a torpedo from a locally developed autonomous submarine.

The milestone was carried out by the submarine, known locally as the Kapal Selam Otonom (KSOT), within the waters of the Indonesian Navy's base at Surabaya on the same day of the announcement.

It was witnessed by Indonesian Minister of Defense Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, alongside Commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces General Agus Subiyanto, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Ali, and senior officials from the MoD.

They observed the firing from the deck of the Indonesian Navy's hospital ship KRI dr Soeharso .

Neither the MoD nor PT PAL has provided further details on the firing, but images of the event provided indicate that it involved the discharge of a single 324 mm drill round as denoted by the ordnance's orange livery.

One of the images also indicate the presence of a distinct bubble plume and frothy disturbance on the water surface. This suggests that the torpedo was expelled using compressed gas or air and KSOT employed a dry launch method for its torpedo firing.

During the firing, the submarine has its retractable optronic mast deployed with an electro-optical sensor, a radio antenna, and what appears to be a multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) antenna.

In a statement to mark the milestone, Sjamsoeddin described the KSOT programme as a strategic step towards self-reliance in maritime defence and one that lays the foundation for future indigenously developed underwater systems, including unmanned underwater vehicles and autonomous underwater vehicles.