IP26072
Author: Iis Gindarsah
Published: 11 June 2026
The 13 April joint statement between the US secretary of war and Indonesian defence minister announcing the establishment of their Major Defence Cooperation Partnership (MDCP) is brief and – it seems – deliberately ambiguous. The substance of the MDCP, as announced, is organised around three foundational pillars – military modernisation and capacity-building; professional military education and training; and exercises and operational cooperation.
Among “cutting-edge” initiatives that the two countries will consider co-developing are “sophisticated asymmetric capabilities pioneering next-generation defence technologies in the maritime, subsurface and autonomous systems domains”. This paper argues that autonomous systems will emerge as the central focus of the MDCP. This judgement rests less on the wording of the framework’s announcement than on the direction that US capability and industrial incentives are now pointing towards.
For full article, please open the link:
The article was published by RSIS.
The Romanian Institute for Europe-Asia Studies (IRSEA) and S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), NTU have agreed to enter into an informal agreement on republishing their studies and analysis.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position or view of IRSEA.