Indonesia pleads for help as submarine ‘lost’

Indonesia has appealed to Australia and Singapore to help it locate a submarine missing in the Lombok Strait with 53 people on board.

The 42-year-old KRI Nanggala-402 submarine off Surabaya in East Java in 2014. Picture: Getty Images

Indonesia has appealed to Australia and Singapore to help it locate a submarine missing in the Lombok Strait with 53 people on board.

The 42-year-old German-built KRI Nanggala-402 submarine — one of only five in the country’s fleet — disappeared early on Wednesday as it was conducting torpedo drill exercises 95km off the north coast of Bali.

It is feared to have sunk. Indonesia’s ministry of defence said an oil spill was located by a surveillance helicopter at the site where the submarine began to dive.

Indonesian military commander Hadi Tjahjanto said the vessel stopped responding about 5am (AEST) and had not been heard from since. It is believed to be in an ocean trench 700m deep.

“Just when the dive permit was given, after being given the clearance, contact was immediately lost,” Marshal Tjahajanto said.

The Indonesian military has deployed several warships to the scene and has also asked for assistance from Australia and Singapore, which have submarine rescue vessels.

“We have good defence co-­operation with Singapore and Australia for issues like accidents and search and rescue.

“We have ­already communicated with them requesting assistance,” Marshal Tjahajanto said.

The Australian understands the federal government has agreed to help.

Singapore is believed to have already dispatched its submarine rescue ship, MV Swift Rescue, from Changi naval base to the Lombok Strait to assist.

Experts say rescue efforts could be complicated by the potential depth of the vessel. Modern submarines typically can dive to a maximum depth of 600m, ­although the dive capacity of the 1979-built submarine is likely far less than that.

The vessel underwent a two-year refit in South Korea that was completed in 2012. 

Euan Graham, a senior fellow at Singapore’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the incident would be a blow to Indonesia, a maritime power that is proud of its capacity to defend its sea borders, and which only last month conducted major submarine exercises in its Natuna waters on the edge of the South China Sea.

“It sounds like they have been pushing themselves pretty hard and it might be that this just went beyond their level of operational capacity,” Dr Graham said.

“If the previous exercise was to stress that Indonesia has a submarine ­capacity it can surge, they may have just inadvertently drawn ­attention to their shortcomings in this area.”

The KRI Nanggala-402 is one of two old submarines made by Germany’s Howaldt Deutsche Werke and their procurement in 1981 was an attempt to restrengthen Indonesia’s maritime power, which at the time had 12 submarines but only one capable of diving. Indonesia has since procured three Nagapasa-class diesel-­electric attack submarines from South Korean builder Daewoo, the last of which, the KRI Alugoro (405), was launched in 2019.