The Jupiter Aerobatic Team (JAT) is the Indonesian Air Force's (TNI-AU) display team. It flies six red and white KT-1B Wong Bee trainers and is a special squadron under Skadik 102, part of the Flight Training Wing at Adisutjipto Air Base in Yogyakarta.
"Jupiter" is the call sign of TNI-AU flight instructors, and the team is made up of them. A pilot needs at least three years of teaching experience to join, and each pilot keeps the same aircraft for as long as he remains on the team.
The team says it started in 1996 with four British made Hawk Mk-53 jets, and its first public show came on October 5, 1997, at the TNI anniversary.
It stopped flying in 2002. It returned on July 4, 2008, at the flight school's Wingday, this time with four KT-1Bs, a South Korean turboprop trainer, and has flown six since 2011. When it travels, the team brings seven aircraft, one of them a spare, and 14 crew, six of whom are pilots.
Where The Jupiters Have Performed
The Jupiters began flying abroad in 2012, at Thailand's celebration of 100 years of military aviation. LIMA in Malaysia and the Brunei International Defense Exhibition followed in 2013.
At Singapore Airshow 2014, the Jupiters stood out among the faster jet displays. Their KT-1Bs flew at lower speeds, giving spectators more time to follow each maneuver.
In March 2015, two KT-1Bs clipped wings and crashed during a rehearsal for LIMA in Langkawi. All four crew members parachuted out. The team later resumed flying with six aircraft.
At LIMA 2017, the team flew a joint formation with South Korea's Black Eagles, whose eight T-50 jets joined the Jupiters' six propeller aircraft. They returned to Singapore in 2018 and LIMA in 2019. After the pandemic, they were back at Singapore Airshow in 2022 and LIMA in 2023. LIMA 2025 was their fifth appearance at the show.
On opening day at Singapore Airshow 2026 they flew a 15 minute display with six aircraft. On May 31, 2026, they performed at the 65th anniversary of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces, Brunei's Sultan watching the display.
At home, the Jupiters regularly fly over national celebrations. At the 2025 TNI anniversary in Jakarta, six JAT aircraft performed aerobatic maneuvers over Monas, while G120TP-A Grob trainers formed the number 80.
The Jupiter Roll is the team's signature move.
The LIMA 2025 program also included the Eagle to Arrowhead Loop, Clover Leaf, Heart Loop, Mirror, Solo Spin and Bomb Burst. In the Heart Loop, two aircraft peel off left and right while four dive. In the Mirror, one aircraft flies upside down over another until the cockpits almost meet.
In Singapore in 2026, the program was the Jupiter Roll, Delta Loop, Arrowhead Loop, and Heart and Diamond.
Part of Diplomacy
The Jupiters do not fly abroad just to entertain. As part of the Indonesian Air Force, each overseas show also represents the country's armed forces to foreign officials and the public, and TNI-AU itself describes these trips as diplomacy.
After the team returned from LIMA 2025, Adisutjipto base commander Toto Ginanto said its participation was a real contribution by the air force to defense diplomacy and to promoting Indonesian aerospace on the international stage.
Scholars use the term in much the same sense. In the 2018 article Defence Diplomacy - An Important Tool for the Implementation of Foreign Policy and Security of the State, Lech Drab cites Andrew Cottey and Anthony Forster’s 2004 definition of defense diplomacy as the the peaceful, non-confrontational use of armed forces as a tool of foreign and security policy.
Writing in 2015 in an RSIS working paper for Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Indonesia's Defence Diplomacy: Harnessing the Hedging Strategy against Regional Uncertainties, Indonesian researcher Iis Gindarsah says that, broadly understood, it makes the military an instrument of persuasion, or "soft power".
Gindarsah argues that Indonesia's defense diplomacy serves two broad agendas, strategic engagement and military modernisation. His work also identifies confidence building, military capability and defense industrial development as important objectives.
The Brunei trip also had precedent. Gindarsah's paper lists an annual Indonesia-Brunei air exercise that began in 2009, so a flight over Brunei's anniversary celebration fit into a longer relationship between the two air forces.
