Indonesia’s confirmed operational deployment of the KHAN tactical ballistic missile system represents a pivotal evolution in Southeast Asia’s security architecture, marking a deliberate move away from purely defensive postures toward a precision-strike capability capable of imposing operational costs across contested maritime and littoral zones.
Verified imagery that emerged in early January 2026 showing KHAN launch platforms in Indonesian service underscores a transition that is far more than a routine weapons induction. Analysts say it reflects Jakarta’s strategic recalibration of its long-range firepower doctrine amid growing tensions in the South China Sea and its surrounding maritime approaches.
“This is the first time the KHAN missile system, an export version of the combat-proven Bora ballistic missile, will enter the inventory of a force other than the Turkish military,” said Roketsan Deputy General Manager Murat Kurtulus. His statement highlighted both the exclusivity of the transfer and the trust inherent in Ankara’s decision to export a core strike capability.
Kurtulus further explained the geographic rationale behind Indonesia’s acquisition, noting that “Indonesia’s very large coastlines and islands… needs naval systems and surface-to-surface guided missiles.” His remarks capture the structural vulnerabilities of the archipelago and illuminate Jakarta’s drive to field mobile, long-range, precision-guided strike assets.
On the Indonesian side, Brigadier General Wahyu Yudhyana confirmed that “the first batch of KHAN missiles has been stationed at the 18th Field Artillery Battalion in East Kalimantan,” publicly anchoring what had previously been circulating as fragmented imagery and unverified defence-industry reporting.
Complementing this operational confirmation, Roketsan CEO Murat İkinci emphasised the industrial dimension of the acquisition, stating that “the deal covers technology transfer, including intellectual property licensing, production training, and capacity building for Indonesian engineers.” This framing positions the KHAN programme as both a military and industrial multiplier.
Taken together, these statements reveal that Indonesia’s acquisition was driven not by prestige or declaratory signalling alone but by a sober recognition that its deterrence credibility depends on holding adversary staging areas, radar nodes, and logistics hubs at risk well beyond conventional artillery ranges.
The KHAN missile system, developed by Roketsan as an export-compliant derivative of Türkiye’s Bora tactical ballistic missile, occupies a doctrinal space between traditional guided rocket artillery and strategic missile forces. It provides Indonesia with a qualitatively new tier of precision-strike capability.
Designed within the constraints of the Missile Technology Control Regime, the KHAN has an official maximum range of approximately 280 kilometres, allowing Jakarta to project precision effects deep into contested zones while remaining compliant with international non-proliferation frameworks.
With a launch weight of roughly 2,500 kilograms and a 470-kilogram high-explosive or fragmentation warhead, the missile is optimised for neutralising hardened targets such as command bunkers, airbase infrastructure, radar installations, logistics nodes, and forward-deployed missile batteries. Its dual-mode guidance system, integrating inertial navigation with satellite-aided correction via GPS and GLONASS, delivers a circular error probable of under ten metres—a level of accuracy that fundamentally alters the cost-exchange ratio of land-based strike operations.
This precision enables Indonesia to achieve effects traditionally associated with airpower while mitigating the political, financial, and survivability risks associated with penetrating contested airspace in high-intensity conflict scenarios.
Mounted on a highly mobile 8×8 wheeled launcher, the KHAN system supports rapid “shoot-and-scoot” operations, allowing it to move swiftly across Indonesia’s complex terrain and complicating adversary targeting and counter-battery measures. For the Indonesian Army, this capability bridges a longstanding gap between tube artillery, rocket systems, and air-delivered munitions, creating a layered fires architecture aligned with modern multi-domain warfare concepts.
Indonesia’s journey toward acquiring the KHAN missile system formally began at the Indo Defence Expo in 2022, when Jakarta signed a landmark agreement with Turkey. This made Indonesia the first foreign recipient of the system. Although the contract value remains undisclosed, defence-industry assessments place it at several hundred million US dollars, plausibly exceeding US$300 million when associated support systems and training packages are included.
Crucially, the agreement embedded technology transfer provisions aligned with Indonesia’s Minimum Essential Force roadmap, advancing long-term ambitions to strengthen domestic defence-industrial capacity. By incorporating intellectual property access, production familiarisation, and engineering training, the KHAN programme functions as both a military acquisition and a catalyst for indigenous missile-technology competence.
Deliveries reportedly commenced in mid-2025 under a deliberate veil of secrecy, reflecting Jakarta’s sensitivity to regional reactions. By late 2025, the designation ITBM-600 began circulating within Indonesian military circles, signifying formal integration into national force planning rather than a niche experimental capability.
The arrival of a second batch scheduled for early 2026 completes the initial procurement phase, transitioning Indonesia from capability acquisition to sustained operational readiness—a phased approach balancing deterrence enhancement with escalation management.
Imagery released in January 2026 depicting KHAN launchers in transport and deployment configurations provides rare insight into Indonesia’s operational integration. One photograph shows erect launch canisters against dense tropical foliage, highlighting both readiness and concealment. Another captures an 8×8 launcher on a flatbed trailer in an industrial zone, illustrating the system’s compatibility with civilian infrastructure for rapid strategic mobility. Port-side imagery depicts covered launch units being craned onto transport vessels, signalling the maritime dimension of Indonesia’s missile logistics—an essential factor for an archipelagic nation operating across dispersed sea lines of communication.
For regional observers, these deployments send subtle yet unmistakable strategic messaging. The KHAN system extends survivable, land-based precision-strike coverage across critical maritime chokepoints, including the Natuna approaches, allowing Jakarta to hold adversary staging nodes, ISR assets, and forward logistics at risk without relying solely on contested air or naval penetration.
Analysts note that Indonesia’s strategic location along vital sea lanes makes such capabilities “vital for safeguarding its sovereignty and maritime commerce.” Beyond Indonesia, the acquisition reflects a broader regional trend: Southeast Asian nations are increasingly pursuing advanced missile systems amid rising territorial disputes. The Philippines’ BrahMos deployment and Vietnam’s exploratory interest in similar systems demonstrate a shift toward deterrence models where long-range precision strike becomes a baseline requirement, compressing adversary decision cycles and elevating the operational costs of forward deployments near disputed waters.
For Jakarta, KHAN provides a mobile, credible second-strike option that complicates adversary planning while maintaining the political neutrality central to Indonesia’s non-aligned doctrine. Land-based missiles enhance deterrence without the alliance signalling inherent in advanced combat aircraft or foreign basing arrangements.
This approach reinforces regional stability by demonstrating operational credibility while preserving diplomatic flexibility, allowing Indonesia to hedge strategically rather than align rigidly with competing Indo-Pacific blocs. The cumulative effect is the emergence of a more resilient, multidimensional security environment in which missile forces—rather than platforms alone—are increasingly central to shaping stability, escalation control, and power projection.
Looking ahead, the principal challenge lies not merely in fielding the KHAN missile system but in integrating it into a resilient, network-centric command, control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance architecture. Sustaining such a high-end precision-strike capability will require persistent investment in satellite access, hardened communications, and multi-layered targeting intelligence—cumulative costs that could exceed US$500 million over the coming decade, including training, sustainment, and upgrades.
Nevertheless, the ITAR-free nature of Turkish missile systems provides Jakarta with exceptional autonomy in deployment patterns, software modification, doctrine evolution, and future capability growth, free from external supply constraints or operational restrictions. Roketsan officials have hinted at potential future cooperation, including navalised launch concepts and extended-range derivatives, suggesting that KHAN may represent the first layer of a broader Indonesian precision-strike ecosystem.
As great-power competition intensifies across the Indo-Pacific, Indonesia’s KHAN deployment positions Jakarta as a strategically literate middle power—neither passive nor overtly escalatory—deliberately shaping its deterrence environment while avoiding entanglement in binary bloc politics. The system’s combination of mobility, accuracy, and survivability materially enhances military credibility by complicating adversary planning and compressing decision timelines, all while preserving diplomatic maneuverability essential to Indonesia’s long-standing non-aligned strategy.
KHAN does not simply augment Indonesia’s force structure; it recalibrates the broader Southeast Asian strategic calculus. Deterrence is increasingly defined by precision, resilience, and escalation management rather than numerical mass alone. For the Indonesian archipelago, the KHAN deployment marks not a terminus but the opening phase of a regional transformation whose strategic consequences will extend far beyond Indonesia’s shores, shaping the Indo-Pacific balance of power for years to come.
