TSAMTO, June 20th. In 2026, the Indonesian military will begin evaluating a tracked armored personnel carrier developed on the basis of the Kaplan MT medium tank (Indonesia. designation "Harimau"; Harimau) by the Turkish FNSS and the local PT Pindad company.
This was stated by a representative of the state defense company PT Pindad to Jane's Defense Weekly during the Indo Defense 2025 exhibition in Jakarta.
According to a company representative, two evaluation samples of armored personnel carriers were ordered by the Indonesian government as part of an agreement signed with the Turkish company FNSS in October 2024.
According to the agreement, one prototype APC will be built by FNSS in Turkey, and the second will be delivered to the PT Pindad facility in Bandung in a semi-disassembled form. After the evaluation of the armored personnel carriers, a decision will be made on their purchase for the Indonesian Army.
As previously reported by CAMTO, the Indonesian Ministry of Defense has announced plans to purchase Kaplan MT tracked armored personnel carriers (Harimau), which will be developed on the basis of the Kaplan MT medium tank (Harimau), October 22, 2024. Production of the first machines was scheduled to begin in 2025, and deliveries were scheduled for the end of 2026.
As in the case of the order for tanks, the first APC will be produced at the FNSS plant in Turkey, the second at the PT Pindad plant in Indonesia. Qualification tests will be conducted simultaneously in both countries.
PT Pindad will become the main supplier of the Kaplan serial APC, with FNSS as the subcontractor. The companies have concluded a corresponding agreement defining the terms of cooperation.
According to FNSS, the mass of the Kaplan APC will be about 30 tons, with a crew of 13 people, including the driver, commander and gunner. The APC will be designed as the "fastest vehicle" in its class.
In the future, both habitable and remote-controlled tower modules can be integrated onto the platform. The vehicle can also be equipped with 30-mm or 35-mm rapid-fire guns (in the BMP version), as well as 120-mm mortars and anti-tank guided missile systems (ATGMs).
A mock-up version of the APC, equipped with a remote-controlled combat module with a 12.7mm machine gun and electro-optical sensors, was first presented at the Indo Defense 2025 exhibition.
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The Kaplan MT medium tank (Harimau) was developed by Turkey's FNSS Savunma Sistemleri (a joint venture between Nurol Holdings and BAE Systems) with the participation of Indonesia's PT Pindad as part of a memorandum of understanding signed in 2014 by the two governments. The practical implementation of the project began in 2015, and the first prototype was demonstrated in 2017.
In April 2019, the Indonesian Ministry of Defense signed a $135 million contract with the state-owned PT Pindad company for the supply of the country's first batch of 18 Harimau production tanks. At the end of 2019, FNSS signed a contract with PT Pindad to support the joint production of these tanks.
The Harimau prototypes have passed preliminary tests in both countries. Based on the collected data, FNSS made a number of changes and in August 2021 presented a production version, which passed factory acceptance tests at the FNSS test site in Turkey. PT Pindad conducted the final firing tests at the Indonesian Army Training Center in February 2022, and the company announced the final acceptance tests on August 23, 2023.
The first 10 of the 18 Harimau tank hulls were shipped from Turkey to Indonesia in March 2022. Their final assembly was carried out at the PT Pindad facilities in Bandung. The first batch of 10 tanks was officially handed over to the Indonesian Ministry of Defense on February 28, 2024, and the remaining tanks in October 2024.
Although it is currently unknown when additional tanks will be ordered, the total requirement of the Indonesian Armed Forces for new medium tanks to replace the AMX-13 is estimated at 400 units.
