Paskhas

The Korps Pasukan Khas (Paskhas) (en: Special Forces Corps) is the Special Forces corps of the Indonesian Air Force (IAF) or TNI-AU in Indonesian. In Indonesia, this unit also sometimes called Orange Berets (Baret Jingga in Indonesian) because of the color of their service headgear. Like other elite units in the Indonesian Army and Navy, Paskhas is a ground combat unit that is capable of operating on land, sea, and air. The difference is that Paskhas is trained to seize and defend airfields from enemy forces, and then prepare the airfields to be able to facilitate friendly airplanes to land. This capability is known as Frontline Air Base Establishment and Management Operation (Operasi Pembentukan dan Pengoperasian Pangkalan Udara Depan - OP3UD). Paskhas has the only IAF special forces and has many air-oriented combat abilities, such as combat-control team, airfields control, combat SAR, jump master, or ground-forward air control. They can also operate as air traffic controllers (ATC).

History

The history of Paskhas as the first airborne troops is almost as old as the Republic of Indonesia. An airborne-infiltration operation by 14 paratroopers on October 17, 1947, in Kotawaringin, Kalimantan, is marked as the birthdate of Paskhas. In the early years of the Indonesian Air Force (established on April 9, 1946), these airborne units were called Air Field Defense Troops (PPP). In April 1952, the Quick-Reaction Troops (PGT) was also established to strengthen the IAF. In 1952, the IAF ground units consisted of PPP, PGT, and PSU (Air Defense Unit). On October 15, 1962, PPP and PGT were organized into Air Fields Defense Command (Koppau). Later on May 17, 1966, Koppau was renamed to Quick-Reaction Troops Command (Kopasgat). There were three Kopasgat regiments, each located in Bandung, Jakarta and Surabaya. Kopasgat was transformed into the Special Forces Center in 1985, before it became Paskhas on July 7, 1997, based on the official decision of the Indonesian Armed Forces Commander.

Strength

Recently, Paskhas has had a strength of around 7,300 personnel. Every Paskhas member must have para-commando qualification, plus special air aspects qualification based on his specialization. Paskhas is famous for their orange beret that they used in this force when the name was still "Kopasgat" in the mid-1960s. The Paskhas motto is, "Karmanye Vadikaraste Mafalesu Kadatjana" which means, "Working without hoping (for) any reward". Every Paskhas member is also equipped with a white Commando dagger made in Germany. The orange beret and Commando dagger have become trademarks of this special force. Paskhas is also known for its light-green camouflage uniform called Commando Stripe, with a stretch-out straight motif like moss-covered wood, that was very famous during the Seroja operation in East Timor.

There is a plan to expand the Paskhas into 10 or 11 battalions with twice as many personnel as what they had previously. Recently, the placement of Paskhas has still followed the organization of IAF weapon systems, in particular the combat and support-combat airplanes. In other words, wherever there is an IAF main airbase, ideally there is a Paskhas battalion as the airfield defense unit.

Structure

1. Paskhas Headquarter in (Sulaiman AFB, Margahayu Bandung)
2. 1st Wing/Hardha Maruta (Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force Base (AFB), Jakarta)
   West Regional:
   1. Battalion 461/Cakra Bhaskara (Halim Perdanakusuma AFB, Jakarta)
   2. Battalion 462/Pulanggeni (Pekan Baru AFB, Riau)
   3. Battalion 465/Brajamusti (Supadio AFB, Pontianak)
   4. Battalion 467/Harda Dedali (Halim Perdanakusuma AFB, Jakarta)
   5. A- Independent Company (To be expanded to Battalion 469)(Polonia AFB, Medan)
   6. B- Independent Company (Suryadarma AFB, Subang)
   7. G- Independent Company (Lhokseumawe AFB, Aceh)
   8. H- Independent Company (Sultan Iskandar Muda AFB, Aceh)
3. 2nd Wing Paskhas (Abdul Rachman Saleh AFB, Malang)
   Center Regional:
   1. Battalion 463/Trisula (Iswahyudi AFB, Madiun)
   2. Battalion 464/Nanggala (Abdul Rachman Saleh AFB, Malang)
   3. Battalion 466/Pasopati (Sultan Hasanuddin AFB, Makasar)
   4. Battalion 468/Sarotama (Manuhua AFB, Biak)
   5. E- Independent Company (Adi Sucipto AFB, Yogyakarta)
   6. D- Independent Company (El Tari AFB, Kupang)
   7. F- Independent Company (Manuhua AFB, Biak)
4. 3rd Wing Paskhas / Training Center, (Sulaiman AFB, Bandung) - to become Kodiklat Paskhas
5. Den Bravo-90, (Rumpin, Bogor)
6. 3rd Wing Paskhas / Training Center, (Sultan Hasanuddin AFB, Makassar) - East Regional

Weaponry

Handguns

• Pindad P1/P2  Indonesia
• Glock 17 and 19  Austria
• SIG Sauer P226   Switzerland

Assault Rifles

• Pindad SS1 and SS2  Indonesia
• SAR 21  Singapore
• M16A3 rifle  United States

Submachine guns

• Heckler & Koch MP5  Germany

Shotguns

• Benelli M3  Italy

Grenade launcher

• Pindad SPG-1  Indonesia

Machine gun and other heavy weapons

• Pindad SM3 LMG  Belgium  Indonesia
• Pindad SPM2 GPMG  Belgium  Indonesia
• DShK heavy machine gun  Soviet Union
• SIG Sauer SHR 970 Sniper Rifle   Switzerland
• SIG Sauer SSG 3000 Sniper Rifle   Switzerland
• PGM Hécate II Anti-materiel rifle  France (Also used for counter-sniper tactics)
• QW-3 MANPADS  China
• Oerlikon Skyshield SHORAD   Switzerland^[1][2]
• Hispano-Suiza Triple gun model 1950   Switzerland (to be retired)

Combat Qualification

Paskhas personnel are an integral part of the Air Force, having their own specialty. This specialty is for the duty that they are facing. Paskhas personnel have the qualifications and special ability to protect, defend and operate airfield facilities. The Air Force has had high-technology weapons systems that have become a vital object to destroy by enemy forces.

The basic qualification for all Paskhas personnel has been "para-commando". Other qualifications are added based on his specialty. As a Combat Control team (CCT), they have combat free-fall ability, scuba diving, and combat climber. CCT must be able to infiltrate from three media aspects (sea, air, land). Beside that, this team's personnel must have one of the air aspect specializations, such as: Air Traffic Controller (PLLU), Meteorology (Meteo), Electronic-Communication (Komlek), Combat Field Engineer (Zeni), Intelligence, Fire Fighter (PK), Ground handling, Petroleum affairs (Permi), and Combat-Health affairs (Keslap). For free-fall qualification, they must be brave enough to jump high and open the parachute in minimum altitude. The airborne technique that used was HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) or HAHO (High Altitude High Opening), with jumps around 20,000 feet (6 km; 4 mi) above sea level.

CCT has also had qualifications to direct the fighter planes to bomb or shoot the target from the ground (Ground Forward Air Control/GFAC). This role has been very important in battle because air support must be precise on time and target. Paskhas personnel must be able to use IT and to communicate with multimedia tools. Besides that, they are also required to have combat-intelligence ability as a collection board (Bapul) for higher command, or any other side that is needed. For example, they inform about flight facilities before plane arrived, visibility, wind speed and direction, temperature and air humidity also height and cloud type. This has been a very important factor in bombing targets and for the airborne process. All the personnel also have training as a Combat-Field Engineer (include pioneer, rope, etc.), Air Field Control (Dallan) to operate flight in some aerodrome, or Air Traffic Control (PLLU), which can control flight traffic in their sector area. Petroleum Affairs (Permi) must know and test the oil standard that fulfill the conditions and the way to fill the oil into the airplane. This special qualification surely is not known by the all-Indonesian armed forces soldier.

Because Paskhas operate as commando forces, they rarely involve many personnel in their operation. Paskhas have also used unusual calls when they were doing combat mission, such as detachment, team and unit to differentiate them from regular forces.

References

See also

• Indonesian Air Force
• Kopassus - Indonesian Army special forces.
• Kopaska - Indonesian Navy tactical diver forces.
• Denjaka - Indonesian Navy counter-terrorism special forces.