The current developments in Indonesia's defense policies are framed within the concept of achieving "Minimum Essential Force" or MEF by 2024. This concept of MEF was first articulated in Presidential Decree No. 7/2008 on General Policy Guidelines on State Defense Policy which came into effect on 26 January 2008. MEF is defined as a capability based defense and force level that can guarantee the attainment of immediate strategic defense interests, where the procurement priority is given to the improvement of minimum defense strength and/or the replacement of outdated main weapon systems/equipment. To achieve this aim, MEF had been restructured into a series of 3 strategic programs with timeframes from 2010 to 2014, 2015 to 2019 and 2020 to 2024 as well as spending of up to1.5–2% of the GDP.