Indonesia loses one of its ex-East German landing ship medium in sinking incident

The KRI Teluk Jakarta (541) in an undated photo. Photo c/o MBS News.

The Indonesian Navy (TNI-AL) recently lost one of its medium landing ship (LSM), the KRI Teluk Jakarta (541) inside Indonesian waters off Kangaean Island on 14 July 2020.

Teluk Jakarta means Jakarta Bay in English. The ship was reported to have sank 90 meters deep at 9:00am local time.

All 55 crew members were declared safe after they were rescued by passing commercial ships, and were transferred to the frigate KRI Raden Eddy Martadinata (331) once the weather conditions became more favorable, to allow the crew to be returned back to the TNI-AL's naval base in Surabaya.

Although formal investigations are underway by the TNI-AL, initial reports stated that the sinking may have happened because of a leak in the hull. The sea state during the incident was said to be high, with waves up to 4 meters reported.

The ship is one of the TNI-AL's Teluk Gilimanuk-class LSM, which were formerly the East German Navy's Frosch I-class LSMs acquired in 1993 as they became redundant once the reunification of East and West Germany was completed.

The TNI-AL received a total of 12 Frosch-I and 2 Frosch-II class ships, with two ships already retired from service.  The entire class remains the most numerous in the TNI-AL's fleet of amphibious vessels.


[1] Overt Defense
[2] Media Indonesia