TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia's Ministry of Defense announced the cancellation of its plan to purchase F-15EX fighter jets from Boeing due to the high price quoted.
The Head of the Information Bureau of the Ministry of Defense Secretariat General, Brigadier General Rico Sirait, stated that the Indonesian government requested a bid as part of the plan to purchase 24 units of the fighter jets.
"However, the proposed price is considered too high to be pursued," Rico said when confirmed by Tempo on Wednesday, February 4, 2026.
However, Rico did not disclose the price per unit that Boeing offered Indonesia for the F-15EX. He only emphasized that the plan to procure F-15EX has not entered the budgeting stage.
Boeing announced the cancellation of the planned agreement to sell F-15EX to Indonesia. Bernd Peters, Vice President of Business Development and Strategy at Boeing Defense, conveyed this cancellation at the Singapore Airshow on February 3, 2026. Bernd did not provide further details on the reasons for the cancellation of the cooperation.
Boeing offered the Indonesian government F-15EX fighter jets and promised to fulfill at least 85 percent of the Local Content Trade Offsets (LCTO) obligations if Indonesia is interested in purchasing the aircraft.
"If Indonesia chooses the F-15EX, Boeing will fulfill 85 percent of the offset obligation," said Boeing's Chief Executive Officer for the Southeast Asia region Penny Burtt at a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday, April 15, 2025.
According to Forbes, the F-15EX is the latest version of the Boeing F-15. Boeing's fighter jet attracted public attention after the United States Air Force bought 200 units under a contract worth US$22.9 billion in July 2020.
According to Air Force Magazine, cited from Forbes, the price of one unit of the F-15EX reached US$87.7 million, including the engine.
However, Boeing's Vice President and F-15 Program Manager Prat Kumar stated that the report was somewhat inaccurate. "The launch cost of Block 1 (F-15EX) will be less than US$80 million," Kumar stated in a post for Forbes on Friday, July 24, 2020.
The plan to procure the F-15EX was initiated when Prabowo Subianto served as the Minister of Defense in 2023. He signed a memorandum of commitment to purchase 24 F-15EX fighter jets. The signing took place at The Boeing Company, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. The F-15EX is a 4.5-generation fighter aircraft.
Ilona Estherina and Melynda Dwi Puspita contributed to the writing of this article
Read: Former Indonesian Foreign Ministers Meet Prabowo to Discuss Foreign Policy
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