The carrier is here: a 41-year-old Italian ship docks in Jakarta as KRI Sriwijaya

Indonesia now owns an aircraft carrier. Al Jazeera reports that the former Italian navy ship Giuseppe Garibaldi docked at Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta on Friday, after sailing from Italy by way of Colombo and the Malacca Strait. It will be renamed KRI Sriwijaya, after the Sumatra-based kingdom that was one of Southeast Asia's strongest sea and trading powers between the seventh and 13th centuries. The ship is 180 metres long, can carry up to 18 helicopters and can hold 830 people on board. It was commissioned by Italy in 1985 and retired in 2014.

The navy's public case for the ship is disaster relief, not war. "There are many disasters in this country. So we really need a vessel or platform that could carry many helicopters, because the helicopters can drop logistics quickly to remote areas," navy chief of staff Muhammad Ali told reporters. He added that it could be sent on combat missions if necessary, and said the hull is in good enough shape for another 15 to 20 years. Italy agreed in March to hand the carrier over as a way to build defence ties with Jakarta. Rome is also chasing deals on submarines and aircraft, and handing the ship over saves Italy the cost of scrapping it.

The ship arrived free, but the programme around it is not. Indonesia's Finance Ministry approved US$450 million for the carrier programme in 2025, and opposition politicians warn the final bill will be larger. It joins a longer shopping run: a US$8.1 billion order in 2022 for 42 French Rafale fighter jets, agreed when Prabowo Subianto was defence minister, long-range missiles from India confirmed this year, a defence partnership with Washington and a security treaty with Australia.

Why it matters

The navy has tied this ship to a promise anyone can check, because a carrier justified by disasters has to turn up where the disasters are, whether that is the burning peatland of Kalimantan or a sinking in the Java Sea. If you live in a place that gets cut off when the weather turns, the test is simple: count how many times helicopters actually fly off KRI Sriwijaya to reach you, and how fast they arrive.