Bung Tomo

The Bung Tomo class consists of corvettes originally built in the United Kingdom for Brunei's navy as the Nakhoda Ragam class. After a procurement dispute, the ships were later acquired by Indonesia and entered service under names including KRI Bung Tomo. This unusual history matters because the ships were not designed from the start around Indonesian requirements, yet they became useful additions to Indonesia's surface fleet.

The Bung Tomo design offers more combat capability than a basic patrol ship. Its fit has included gun armament, anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missiles, torpedo equipment, sensors, and a helicopter deck. This makes it useful for a navy that needs multi-role presence and patrol capability across an archipelagic maritime environment, though its size limits endurance and upgrade space compared with larger frigates.

In Indonesian service, the class supports maritime security and naval presence across a wide island geography. Bung Tomo-class vessels have also been connected with search-and-recovery operations, illustrating that corvettes often perform practical national-response tasks as well as combat missions. Their value lies in flexible availability rather than a single specialized weapon system.