The Indonesian Navy hastily organised a search party by deploying 21 vessels of various types to locate the missing Nanggala. More importantly, the entire military needs to conduct a thorough audit to assess the readiness of its defence equipment. It should review its approach to the safety of its personnel and equipment during training operations, even if that means reducing the number of training hours per operational unit. The Navy, like all branches of Indonesia’s military, needs to review its safety protocols and adopt a more stringent culture of safety. Her final captain, the late Colonel Heri Oktavian, had also privately voiced concern regarding the submarine’s readiness due to maintenance and repair delays. Officers who previously served onboard the Nanggala further attested that they had experienced a power blackout, during which the submarine’s controls were inoperative. The onboard multifrequency underwater telephone communication system was defective throughout the Nanggala’s final and fatal exercise, compromising communication with other assets. In 2012, three crew members were killed in a failed torpedo drill due to a faulty torpedo hatch. The Nanggala had previous issues with faulty systems or instruments. A thorough and independent investigation to identify its primary cause is urgently needed, as a form of accountability to the perished crew and to prevent a similar tragedy from happening in the future. This tragedy is arguably the Indonesian Navy’s worst peacetime loss, and raises important questions for Indonesia’s defence policymakers. All 53 on board including the Navy’s submarine unit commander perished. Its wreckage was later discovered on 25 April more than 800 metres below sea level. Despite an intensive search and rescue operation involving naval assets from Singapore, Australia, India, Malaysia and the United States, the submarine was unable to be located.
On 24 April 2021, Indonesian authorities declared that the Nanggala-402, a Navy submarine that went missing while conducting a naval exercise on 21 April, had sunk. Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the PacificĪuthors: Sigit S Nugroho and Keoni Indrabayu Marzuki, RSIS
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