Drones, cables, and the Indonesia–Australia maritime frontier

Indonesia and Australia share a maritime boundary (Opens in new window) of approximately 3,000 kilometres, one of the longest in the world. A series of meetings between Indonesian and Australian maritime security institutions in the past two months has sought to strengthen bilateral cooperation, following the inaugural Indonesia-Australia Maritime Dialogue (Opens in new window) established last year by President Prabowo Subianto and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Rapid technological development in the maritime domain has become a defining focus of the new dialogue. Drone systems, for example, offer the technology (Opens in new window) needed to extend and enhance Indonesia’s operational surveillance and were a focus of a visit by the Australian Border Force (ABF) to the Indonesian Coast Guard (Opens in new window) (BAKAMLA) headquarters in April this year.

The meeting served as a chance to share Australian experience as Jakarta implements a new Indonesian National Maritime Security System (NMSS). It also canvassed (Opens in new window) “operational capabilities, range, flight endurance, and integration with existing monitoring systems”.

Indonesia is seeking to develop an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) capability to help in monitoring a vast maritime area with a limited number of patrol vessels, as well as to detect foreign UUVs operating in Indonesian waters. Recent discoveries of alleged Chinese UUVs operating in Indonesian waters (Opens in new window) have been found by local fishing communities – the product of equipment failure washing the devices ashore, not interception by Indonesian authorities.

Other emerging challenges involve the protection of subsea cables. With the growing importance of data flow worldwide, as well as shared power supplies amid talk of an ASEAN energy grid, subsea cables are seen as vulnerable infrastructure (Opens in new window). A 2025 blackout across Bali (Opens in new window) was allegedly due to the destruction of subsea cables.

Australia and Indonesia are connected by the Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore cable (Opens in new window). A group of delegates from the Indonesian National Team for the Management of Subsea Pipelines and/or Cables (Opens in new window) visited the Australian Cable Connectivity and Resilience Centre (CCRC) in March, sharing experience on issues such as planning, installation, operation and repair, coordination across government, critical infrastructure risk mitigation, and incident response. The protection of subsea cables, however, should not only be addressed by the government and regulatory institutions. It also requires cooperation with the private sector, which was another focus during the visit of the Indonesian delegation.

Ultimately, the skill to adapt to emerging technological challenges lies with people themselves. To help strengthen the human resources available, the Australian Defence Strategic Communication Centre also visited BAKAMLA last month (Opens in new window) to discuss opportunities for cooperation.

The meetings show an effort not only to forge a regional approach to maritime security, recognising the challenges extend beyond illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing or illicit smuggling, but also to anticipate emerging challenges arising from technology.