Babcock Sells Frigate Design Licence to Indonesia

Aerospace, defense and security company Babcock said it has secured the first export contract for its Arrowhead 140 (AH140) frigate through a design license agreement with PT PAL Indonesia (Persero), a state-owned enterprise that builds and maintains ships for military and commercial use from its facilities in Surabaya, Indonesia.  

The deal comes two years since Babcock’s AH140 design was first announced as the preferred bidder for the UK Type 31 frigate program at DSEI 2019, with the contract confirmed in November of the same year.

The design license will enable PAL to build two Arrowhead 140 frigates in Indonesia with bespoke design modifications for the Indonesian Navy.

The agreement was signed at the Defense and Security Equipment International (DSEI) 2021 event in London, on board HMS Argyll, by David Lockwood CEO Babcock and Kaharuddin Djenod, CEO  PAL. And was witnessed by the Defense Minister of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto and UK Defense Secretary, Rt Hon Ben Wallace MP.  

Babcock has been working alongside the UK Government to promote the Arrowhead 140 Frigate into the global market with strong interest internationally. The company recently announced that it was one of the bidders down selected by the Polish Government to provide a potential design solution for the Polish Navy’s Miecznik (Swordfish) frigate program.  

The baseline Arrowhead 140 design can be configured to meet a broad range of naval requirements and, with Babcock’s support PAL will now engineer the required modifications to configure the Arrowhead 140 for the Indonesian customer.