JAKARTA, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian and Australian air forces have
commenced a joint air combat drill in Darwin, Australia's Northern territory,
the Antara news agency reported on Tuesday.
Indonesia's Iswahyudi air force base commander First Marshall Bambang
Samudro said that Indonesia deployed four F 16 fighter jets in the air combat
drill entitled "2009 Elang Ausindo". Meanwhile its Australian counterpart, Royal
Australian Air Force (RAAF), deployed seven F-18 fighter jets in the air combat
drill session that will end on Sept. 4.
"The joint air combat drill is opened today with the air combat drill will
commence on Tuesday. All of Indonesian personnel scheduled to return on Sept.
5," Bambang said on the sidelines of the opening ceremony held on Monday.
Bambang said that Indonesian air forces assigned 45 air forces personnel to
take part in the session. Those personnel came from Indonesia's third air base
Iswahyudi located in Madiun, East Java.
They will engage in the drill with Australia's 77 squadron personnel, he
added.
Bambang said that the ongoing air combat drill in Darwin was the
continuation of the previous drill held in Makassar, the capital city of
Indonesia's South Sulawesi province two years ago.
Military cooperation between Indonesia and Australia commenced in 1968,
marked with Indonesia's mapping program.
In 1980s, the cooperation continued by establishing "Indonesia-Australia
Defence Cooperation Program" (DCP). The DCP required military officials of the
two countries met regularly on annual basis.
The military of the two countries also set up other combat drill
cooperation that entitled Kartika-Kangaroo, Albatros, Cassoary, Passex and New
Horizon.
The military ties between the two countries were disrupted when the East
Timor crisis occurred in 1999. All of the military cooperation programs
authorized by DCP were freezed, except the education program.
The program resumed in 2001 with a series of informal meetings between
Indonesian and Australian officials.
