cods wrote on Mar 9
th, 2018 at 6:30am:
Armed forces personnel
Australian....51,000
Ranked 67th.
Indonesia....297,000
Ranked 16th. 6 times more than Australia
it looks so easy from a lounge room point of view.
However, once you get down and examine the differences you have Australia has 51,000 full time personnel. In addition it has another 21,000 Reserve personnel, many of whom have done full time operational service in Soloman Islands, East Timor, Afghanistan. In addition, the ADF is equipped with high-tech equipment and soon to receive even more advanced equipment in the near future.
Indonesia, OTOH has the majority of it's personnel serving in the Police - which are considered to be part of the military. Further, while the Indonesian Army has a large number of units, most are smaller than the ADF's comparable units (450 men per Battalion as against 800-900 in the ADF). Wikipedia makes the follow point:
Quote:the International Institute for Strategic Studies' Military Balance 2007 lists the Army with 2 brigades, (6 battalions), plus 60 other battalions in each Military districts ("Kodam") and nine battalions in Kostrad.[19]
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Source]
Most Indonesian battalions are lightly equipped and lack transport and support elements common to ADF units. They are assigned primarily to internal security duties, whereas all the ADF units are combat capable.
Konstrad assigned units are directly comparable to ADF units. However, that is only approximately 40-50,000 men.
Then there is the problem of transporting large numbers of troops to our "Top End". The Indonesians lack that capability. While they purchased at the end of the Cold War a large number of ex-East German landing craft, they are assigned to support the civilian economy, being used on inter-island transportation services.
They are re-equipping with German Leopard and Marder MICVs. However they are relatively small in number and they lack the means of transporting them to the Top End. Our M1a1 AIM MBTs are their match, while we have a large number of M113s and Bushmasters as well as ASLAVs. We are about to be re-equipped under LAND 4000 a new IFV (more than likely German Boxers).
Our air force is superior to theirs in numbers and capability. We have excellent AEW&C aircraft and tankers, which allows us to attack their homeland more easily. They have a small number of Su27 style fighters. They have an even smaller number of F-5 fighters. We have over 75 F/A-18As and Bs fighters. We have about 36 F-18F&G Strike aircraft. Soon we will have F-35 JSFs.
Even if they were to attack the Top End, what would they capture? Darwin? A small country town. A few resource sites and a very small population base. We can destroy most of what they capture on the day they capture it.
Indonesia is a close match to our defence forces. It's superiority is based on numbers and numbers prove little apart from your ability to govern your own fractious nation, Cods.
The indon army, navy & air-force provide nothing more a target rich environment. They are a country we could bomb into the fkken stone-age without too much effort. And we have always been capable of bringing them to their knees
They are capable of killing women and children, not going up against a vastly superior war machine like ours.