Flashback to the decade of the 70s, when relations between Indonesia and the United States were in good shape, where at that time Indonesia was dealing with the vacancy of the warship fleet as a result of the post-G30S political shift, the Indonesian Navy began to acquire four destroyer escort units, Claud Jones. Class (aka – Samadikun Class).
Thanks to the strengthening of the warships used by the US Navy, Indonesia was one of the 'dare' to serve in the early stages of Operation Seroja in East Timor in 1975.
However, you know, still under the umbrella of the FMS (Foreign Military Sales) program, the United States has also offered ships fast patrol to Indonesia.
After the era of the Soviet-made Komar Class, the Indonesian Navy practically did not have fast patrol boats that had sufficient speed. For information, the Komar Class with Styx anti-ship missiles has a maximum speed of 44 knots (81 km per hour).
Quoted from the Instagram Keris Institute, a captured document is shown indicating that Indonesia once had an interest in acquiring Asheville Class gunboats.
There are at least two Asheville Class units prepared for Indonesia after the ship was retired by the US Navy. The price per unit of Asheville Class for Indonesia is said to be in the range of US $ 500 thousand.
However, after going through considerations whose reasons were not stated, the Indonesian government did not buy the Asheville Class gunboat.
The historical Asheville Class gunboat was designed for the needs of the US Navy in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis. This class of ships is named for a town in western North Carolina and the seat of Buncombe County. The Asheville Class was originally designated as a PGM motor warship, but was reclassified in 1967 as a PG combatant patrol ship.
The Asheville Class uses a combined diesel or gas turbine (CODOG) propulsion system; twin Cummins diesel engines for durability, and a GE LM1500 gas turbine for high-speed cruising. The control of the machine is operated by pneumatics. The controllable reversible pitch propeller allows the vessel to come to a stop in less than two vessel lengths from full speed.
The Asheville Class was the first gas turbine ship in the US Navy, as well as the first with an aluminum hull and fiberglass superstructure.
The Asheville Class is 50.1 meters long, 7.3 meters wide and weighs 240 tons. With the CODOG engine, the boat can go a maximum of 16 knots (30 km per hour) when using 2x Cummins VT12-875 diesel engines, and 42 knots (78 km per hour) when using 2x General Electric LM1500 turbine engines. Manned by 24 personnel, this patrol boat can sail as far as 3,100 km.
The Asheville Class is armed with 1x 50 Mk 34 76 mm gun on the bow; 4x 12.7mm heavy machine guns; and 1x Bofors 40 mm/60(56) Mk 10 gun at stern. Five of these warships were equipped with various missiles in place of the 40 mm cannon.
The USS Benicia conducted test fires in the spring of 1971 with a modified AGM-12 Bullpup surface-to-surface missile system and the USS Antelope and USS Ready equipped with two launch cells aft plus a reload box on deck. The USS Grand Rapids and USS Douglas are equipped with upgraded Standard ARM missiles.
In total, there were 17 units of Asheville Class gunboats that were successfully produced in the period 1966 – 1971. Although they failed to change hands to Indonesia, some of these fast boats were acquired second-hand by Greece, Colombia, Turkey and South Korea.
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