Europe is demilitarizing.
And with Europe making itself less relevant, it making the militarization of the Pacific accelerate. Check this out from Tempointinteractive...
The government will buy a German Army Leopard tank and Apache helicopter, Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro has confirmed.Wow.
Indonesia is also looking at buying main weaponry systems from France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain. These countries have recently reduced their military budgets.
Purnomo said the budget would depend on the equipment that will be purchased, but assured that spending would not exceed the targeted budget. Currently, he added, the Defense Ministry is waiting on the list of weapons required by the army, navy and air force. “We haven’t decided about the budget to buy the equipment from Europe,” he said.
Previously, the Army chief of staff, Gen. Pramono Edhie Wibowo, said his unit was given a special allocation of Rp14 trillion to buy weapons, including 100 2A6 Leopard tanks and eight Apache helicopters.
Other weapons to be purchased include multi-barrel rocket launchers, a helicopter type 1412 and a 155 mm cannon from France. Pramono said that only 15 countries in the world use the 2A6 Leopard. “In Southeast Asia, only Singapore has it,” he said.
Maybe my thoughts on taking a capability holiday and dropping Tanks from Marine Corps rosters needs to be re-examined.
Singapore has new tanks. China has new tanks. India has new tanks and it appears that there is an armor race in the Pacific.
Maybe we should keep ours awhile. Damn. Another decision for HQMC to make. Can we afford to stick with the M1A1 or do we join the Army with an upgrade to the M1A3?
We better get this right. KMW pumps out upgrades like a pez dispenser...in some ways the Leopard 2A7 is already superior to the M1A2 TUSK....Who knew? We have to prepare for armored warfare in the Pacific now!
well i see alot of the other nations rising their budgets as good, if theres a coalition against china (which seems to be happening) we wont need to be the only deterrent.
ReplyDeleteyeah but are you forgetting about Pacific history? alot of our new allies are old enemies.
ReplyDeletethe US might be nervous about China and in the Western world memories are short but in the Pacific old rivalries can still be exploited.
Japan and Korea are age old enemies. the issues between China and Vietnam stretch back centuries.
Japan and China have a long checkered history and i haven't even gotten to the other island nations dotting the Pacific.
to be quite honest the only nation that really doesn't have axes to grind in the pacrim area are the Aussies, New Zealanders and such.
besides...eventually when you build a capable military without the proper checks and balances you use it and the 800 lb gorilla in the room is the Spratly island dispute.
That will turn ugly and i'm just waiting for the power plays to begin.
The Canadian Forces reversed their "getting rid of the MBTs" plan after discovering in Afghanistan that LAVs couldn't push through farm irrigation systems or housing compound walls. They purchased/leased Leopard 2A4s I believe and used them to push through any obstacle and make way for the infantry carrying LAVs. They also used them in a direct fire role stating how no matter the smart bomb accuracy nothing beats a 120MM for perfect aiming.
ReplyDeleteI would though be cautious about claiming any take is better than the M1 variants until we've seen it experience even an iota of their battle experience.
Blowing up Afghani rooms or walls is not the same as blowing your way through Falluga or an Iraqi Republican Guard Division. Theory is great but as is mentioned here repeatedly, it doesn't been practice.
well when i talk about the Leopard 2A7 being superior what i'm talking about is it having the latest in optics gear, it has RWS, it has a modular uparmored package and its capable of firing the same rounds that the M1 does.
ReplyDeleteon paper it seems like i said above, in some ways superior to the M1A2 TUSK which doesn't have modular armor upgrades, has the same optics setup and puts the crew at risk with manned 50 cal weapons.
Sol, having taken a csection, out with 2nd tank bn in September I can tell you that marine tanks dont have to physically man their .50 cals. They have a new thermal sight pkg combined with their day sight allowing the tank commander to use it inside the tank like a rws. Learned a lot about abrams when I had 2nd tanks mgysgt in my tc hatch
ReplyDeletethat's news to me! are they using the coax or the commanders gun?
ReplyDeleteCommanders gun (only .50cal on the tank), the msguns told us they want a crow for the loader as well just don't know of they will push for it now or with their next tank upgrade.
ReplyDelete2nd tanks alpha company has been making great impacts in Afgan working with sniper teams to ambush insurgents.