Australian officials are pushing back on a report that Russia is seeking to base long-range bombers at an Indonesian airbase. On Monday, Janes wrote that “Jakarta has received an official request from Moscow, seeking permission for Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) aircraft to be based at a facility in Indonesia’s easternmost province.” That location, Manuhua Air Force Base, is situated about 850 miles north of the Australian port of Darwin.
“Separate sources from the Indonesian government have confirmed with Janes that the request was received by the office of Minister of Defence Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin following his meeting with Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu in February 2025,” the publication added.
Janes said the information it received did not contain details about what kind of airframes Russia is seeking to station at the base. “However, Janes understands that over the past few years, the VKS has made several ad hoc requests to land its Tupolev Tu-95 bombers and Il-76 airlifters at the very same airbase,” the publication reported.
Russia wanting to place long-range bombers closer to Australia as Moscow, Beijing and Washington all seek to expand their influence in the South Pacific isn’t hard to imagine. The U.S. maintains a military presence in Australia and is working to improve the RAAF’s base at Tindal to accommodate B-52 bombers. In addition, for more than a decade, the U.S. Marine Corps sends about 2,500 Marines to the Marine Rotational Force – Darwin Marine Air-Ground Task Force for training.
Meanwhile, Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. signed an agreement known as AUKUS to provide Canberra with nuclear-powered, conventionally armed submarines. All this comes against the backdrop of increasing tensions in the Pacific, including China sailing a flotilla of its warships in international waters around Australia earlier this year, which involved live fire exercises.
Beyond Australia, such a basing agreement would give Russia a seat of power projection in a very contentious and important region overall. It is an area of the world the U.S. and other powers with global reach are also invested in projecting power into more heavily and consistently. And, of course, it’s an area where China’s extra-territorial interests loom very large. Russia is a key ally of China, especially militarily, with their bomber units flying joint patrols throughout the Pacific in increasing regularity.
Regardless of what Russia may want or not, there seems to be little logic to Indonesia agreeing to put Russian strategic assets on its soil. Doing so would greatly upset relations with countries in its own region as well as allies farther abroad, including the United States, which also, like Russia, supplies weapons to Indonesia. And what would Russia be willing to pay for such access during a time when its military is embroiled in a brutal conflict that is sucking tremendous resources? More importantly, what would Indonesia see as so important that it needs it for compensation, regardless of the geopolitical upheaval such a decision could cause?
It’s also worth noting that in 2020, Indonesia rejected a U.S. proposal to allow its P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance planes to land and refuel there, Reuters reported at the time.
Regardless, the Janes story set off alarm bells in Canberra. The Australian government believes both Russia and China “are also increasingly focused on the growing U.S. military presence in Darwin and the Northern Territory,” ABC posited.
“We obviously do not want to see Russian influence in our region, very clearly,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday. “We have a position, which is: we stand with Ukraine, we regard [the Russian president] Vladimir Putin as an authoritarian leader who has broken international law, that is attacking the sovereignty of the nation of Ukraine.”
Australian officials cast doubt about whether Russia will base those bombers at Manuhua.
“Indonesia’s defense minister has assured Australia it will not allow Russian planes to be based in Papua province after a United States media outlet reported that Moscow was pushing to get access to a military base in Papua,” the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) reported on Tuesday.
“I have spoken to my counterpart, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, the minister for defense, and he has said to me in the clearest possible terms, reports of the prospect of Russian aircraft operating from Indonesia are simply not true,” Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Secretary Richard Marles said in a statement to news organizations.
However, while Sjamsoeddin told Marles he had not received any Russian request to access the base, that “doesn’t rule out the possibility it was raised at a more junior level,” ABC noted. “Earlier, Foreign Minister Penny Wong told reporters that Australian officials were seeking more information from Jakarta about the report.”
Russia, meanwhile, also seemed to downplay the notion.
“The Kremlin, when asked about the report that Russia has asked Indonesia for permission to base aircraft in its territory, said there was a lot of fake news around,” ABC reported.
Although Indonesia has “long maintained strategic neutrality, it has deepened security and defense ties with Russia since President Prabowo Subianto was elected last year,” Politico pointed out.
As one example of that growing relationship, Russia and Indonesia held naval drills in the Java Sea in November, ABC reported.
At the time, Russia’s ambassador to Indonesia, Sergei Tolchenov, said the exercises were “a significant event” and that “the navies of our countries are ready to enhance mutual trust and understanding to cooperate in different areas.”
Despite those ties, offering Russia bomber-basing rights is likely a step too far, one analyst suggested.
“Even if Russia is proposing to use an Indonesian airbase, I doubt that the government will allow it. There will be a very significant blowback,” Yohanes Sulaiman, a defense analyst and lecturer at the Jenderal Achmad Yani University, told The Guardian. “The Indonesian military is very averse to having other countries build military bases in Indonesia.”
However, there is precedent for a Russian presence at the base. ABC reported in 2017 that “RAAF Base Darwin was placed on a ‘short period’ of heightened alert, while over 100 Russian personnel and several aircraft were stationed” there.
During a five-day stopover, two nuclear-capable Tu-95 bombers “flew their first-ever patrol mission over the South Pacific, prompting concerns they may have been collecting valuable intelligence,” ABC noted at the time.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed at the time that its strategic bombers “carried out [an] air alert mission over neutral waters of the South Pacific Ocean in a flight lasting more than eight hours,” the outlet stated.
In all, this report feels reminiscent of similar claims regarding Russia forward basing bombers in South America, namely in Venezuela. Those reports have come and gone multiple times, but beyond largely symbolic visits, such an agreement never came to pass.
Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com