JAKARTA – Indonesia’s plan to

has an undeniable cinematic quality – a 180m warship, long retired by a European navy, retrofitted and returning to life in South-east Asia as a floating runway and command post.

What many will be watching now is not just the ship’s arrival, but also how Indonesia intends to use it, including how often it will sail, what aircraft it will carry, and whether Jakarta can afford to keep such a complex platform operational over the long term.