Operation Alpha (Indonesia)

[1] The operation included the training of Indonesian pilots by Israeli instructors and the disguising of the jets during delivery from Israel to Indonesia.

[1][3][4] Operation Alpha was motivated by a shortage of modern combat aircraft in the Indonesian Air Force of the New Order era, especially in light of the situation in East Timor.

By 1980, American aircraft such as the F-86/CAC Sabre and T-33 had become obsolete and were not economical to maintain due to their age, and the Soviet-supplied jets procured in the 60s, such as MiG fighters, Il-28s, and Tu-16s had been grounded due to the lack of technical support after relations with the Soviet Union suffered following the G30S incident and the subsequent massacres, cementing the pivot to western-made arms.

There were multiple problems with this deal, other than the lack of diplomatic relations, the purchase of military equipment from Israel risked facing strong protest from the Indonesian public.

Before sending the pilots, the Indonesian government sent a number of Air Force technicians who were divided into seven groups; they operated in Israel for 20 months [clarification needed] in 1979; after the last group of technicians completed their training, 10 Indonesian Air Force pilots were tendered for departure to Israel in September 1980.

The assembled pilots started to suspect that their mission would take place in Israel, involving the transfer of Israeli aircraft.

The ten were still somewhat unsure of their final destination until they received boarding passes for their next flight to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel.

After the briefing, they traveled for two days over land; south along the Dead Sea to the city of Eilat, to the Etzion Air Base.

However, the accompanying BAIS officers burned those certificates in front of the pilots, there must not be evidence of military cooperation between Indonesia and Israel.

see also: List of Douglas A-4 Skyhawk operators On May 3, 1980, a USAF C-5 Galaxy landed in Iswahjudi Air Force Base with F-5E/F Tiger IIs, and on the next day the first batch of the Israeli A-4 Skyhawks, consisting of two single-seat aircraft (Tail numbers TT-0401 and TT-0414) and two twin-seat aircraft (Tail numbers TL-0415 and TL-0416), arrived at Tanjung Priok port.

After arriving at Adisutjipto, flight leader Major Jemi Trisonjaya immediately handed over the two A-4s to base commander Benyamin Dandel, and signed the handover of the aircraft.