Mastery of Composite Materials to Support Indonesia’s Defense Industry

Fighter aircraft technology has continued to experience rapid development in recent decades. Nowadays the development of fighter aircraft has reached the fifth generation where stealth technology is one of the key technologies. The use of composite materials is a step used to increase the stealth technology of fighter aircraft. Composite technology also experiencing rapid development and has become a major part of the fighter aircraft structure with current usage which has reached 40 %. Indonesia as a developing country currently developing a fighter aircraft with stealth technology as one of the deterrent effects for facing threats that can come at any time. In development, composite technology is one of the technologies that are the focus of technological mastery. Although it is a complicated technology, it does not mean that Indonesia cannot master composite technology well. With the opportunities they have, those are human resources, equipment facilities, market opportunities, and previous experience. However, there are challenges that must be faced, namely the inability of the domestic industry to be able to produce because of new technology and the level of technological readiness that has not been reached. For this reason, mastery of composite technology is focused on mastery of raw material technology and processing technology which are important factors that must be mastered first.