Korps Marinir

Korps Marinir TNI-AL
Indonesian Marine Corps

Born on November 15, 1945, the Marine Corps (Kormar) are the Indonesian Navys ground troops. The corps has the duties of being the main forces in amphibious combat operations and, defensively, being the quick reaction forces in emergency situation to defend the beach fronts from enemies invasion.

Marine Corps is one of the Indonesian Navy main commands. In Navy Structure, Kormar is main command equally with Eastern fleet, Western fleet, Navy Academy, Navy School of Command and Cross Sea Military Command. The Commander of Marine Corps is two stars Major General (Marine). Kormar also have famous nickname as Sea Ghost, this corps using purple beret to identify their self. This color was getting from javanese legend that queen of southern sea always using purple color for his dress. Officially, Marine combat area is around 8 km from the beach because that’s the main area to do amphibious landed operation. If marine need to battle far from that area its must be under jurisdiction from land task force commander where the command was under the army.

Kormar has been active in various military operations in Indonesia. One of the biggest amphibious military operations was Operation Jayawijaya in which thousands of marines will be landed in West Irian in the early 60s as a part of Trikora campaign to free West Irian from Dutch occupation. Kormar also involve in Dwikora campaign where their two best personnels Usman and Harun got death punishment in Singapore court after both of them successfully explode a hotel in center of Singapore. During that time Kormar using KKO-AL (Navy Commando Unit) as their corps name but in 1975, KKO back to using Marine Corps as their name. Kormar also becoming Indonesian first troops that landed in East Timor during Seroja and battle there with other forces.

In 2005-2025 a plan was proposed to expand the Kormar from the current strength of 17,000 personnel. Based on this plan, every Marine Division will have three combat brigades: the Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery and will be supported by one Combat Support Regiment and one Administration Support Regiment. The expansion will create three Marine divisions: Surabaya for Eastern area command, Jakarta for Central area command, and Rate Island in Lampung for Western area command. Kormar also will have 2 independent marine brigades, 1 marine training command, 5 marine bases and 11 marine battalion for navy base defense. The expansion also will increase the strength of Kormar to 70,000 personnel.

Marine corps having 417 armored vehicle, but 307-armored vehicle was over 30 years of age, 37 vehicles between 21-30 years and only 71 is a new vehicle between 1-10 years. Today Marine having around 17.000 personnel, this condition making some jokes in Indonesian military circle that with the amount of island in Indonesia is also around 17.000 and making this country as the largest archipelago in the world, every Marine soldier must guarding one island in Indonesia.