Indonesia abandoned the idea of buying a dozen second-hand Mirage fighters from Qatar. The $790 million deal for 12 second-hand Dassault Mirage 2000-5 fighters from the Qatar Emirate Air Force [QEAF] was canceled, Defense Ministry spokesman Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak said Saturday.

«There is no purchase of Mirage aircraft. Although it was planned, it has been canceled…which means there is no active contract,» the Indonesian Defense Ministry said in a statement, without further details.

Earlier this year, the Indonesian government had decided to delay the purchase of the 12 French-designed fighters due to fiscal constraints. Instead, the Air Force would focus on an upgrade and life extension of its current fleet of existing Sukhoi and F-16 aircraft.

The second-hand fighters were to be delivered within 24 months of signing the agreement. The aim was to use them to accelerate the withdrawal from service of Russian Su-27 and Su-30 heavy fighters, whose availability had declined significantly in recent years, and to give the pilots and technical staff of its Air Force the opportunity to start familiarizing themselves with French material, while awaiting the delivery of the first Rafale fighters acquired in 2022 for $8.1 billion.

The purchase of French deltas had caused great controversy when it was announced last year by the current Minister of Defense, Prabowo Subianto, and favored candidate to win the February 14 presidential election. His detractors point out that it is a very high amount (733 million euros) to be paid for a dozen second-hand aircraft.

According to Reuters, Prabowo Subianto defended the purchase during one of the presidential debates, stating that these Mirage 2000-5s still had a useful life of 15 years and were needed to maintain the country’s defensive capabilities while awaiting the arrival of the Rafale.

The presidential candidate is a major driver of the modernization of the Indonesian Armed Forces, which in addition to the purchase of 42 Dassault Rafale fighters, includes the purchase of five C-130J-30 Super Hercules, unmanned aircraft from Turkish Aerospace, while moving forward with the addition of two European Airbus A400M transport aircraft and negotiating with the US for the acquisition of 24 S-70M Black Hawk helicopters (to be produced in Poland by PZL Mielec) and 24 F-15EX heavy fighters from Boeing.

Meanwhile, Jakarta’s involvement in the development of the Korean KF-21 Boramae next-generation fighter remains in limbo. This stormy partnership recently added a controversial new chapter, when South Korea reported that Indonesian engineers are being investigated for allegedly stealing technologies related to the KF-21 «Boramae» fighter during its development phase.

With the sale to Indonesia cancelled, the Qatari Mirage could eventually find its way into the ranks of the Indian Air Force, which is also an operator of this model and plans to keep them in service until 2035, for which it needs spare parts and second-hand aircrafts to recover losses suffered in accidents.