Defence: Delusion by Dilution
Sep 6th, 2010, in Opinion, by Guest WriterAs reported by Bisnis Indonesia:
JAKARTA: Kepala Staf TNI Angkatan Udara (Kasau) Marsekal TNI Imam Sufaat mengatakan siap jika penyelesaian diplomatik gagal antara Indonesia-Malaysia.
“Kami selalu siap,” katanya di sela-sela buka bersama anggota AU dan purnawirawan TNI di Puri Ardhya Garini Halim Perdanakusuma, malam ini.
Dia menambahkan untuk pesawat jenis F-16 Indonesia memiliki 10 unit sedangkan Malaysia baru 8 unit. “Lagi pula anggota TNI kita semangatnya tinggi kendati gajinya kecil,” ujarnya sambil tersenyum.
JAKARTA: Air Force Chief of Staff, Air Marshal Imam Sufaat proclaimed readiness if a diplomatic solution cannot be reached between Indonesia and Malaysia.
“We are always ready,” said he during a Ramadhan dinner with active and retired Air Force personnel at Puri Ardhya Garini, Halim Perdanakusuma airport, this evening.
He added that Indonesia possessed 10 F-16 fighters, while Malaysia only had 8. “In addition, we have high morale despite our low pay,” he uttered, smiling.
Actually, dear Marshal, Malaysia does not have a single F-16. They have 8 F/A-18s… and the reason they don’t have more is that they’ve been buying Russian jets recently — 18 Su-30s and 14 MiG-29s [wikipedia].
The well-informed Monocle magazine also begs to differ:
Starved of modern equipment, and with a small ageing fleet barely capable of defending the country’s huge airspace, Indonesia’s decision to buy 10 new Sukhoi fighter jets – the last three of which are due to touch down from Russia any day now – might not seem so strange.
…
The thing is, fighter planes are cool. They’re expensive, it’s true, but you get a lot of bang for your buck.
Only not in this case. The Indonesian Sukhois, at 50 million bucks apiece (€39m), are as yet unable to fight. They have no weapons.
A bit worrying that our highest ranking aviator
- confuses a single-engined aircraft with a twin-engined one
- either is not aware, or assume his listeners are not, of the combat readiness of the air forces of negeri jiran — or the lack thereof of our own
In short, exposing us as a paper tiger for the sake of boosting domestic jingoism. Heaven wept.
5 Comments on “Defence: Delusion by Dilution”
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It was several years ago in Australia there was a controversy over the old Coalition government’s plans to buy Super Hornet planes, they were regarded as inferior to Sukhoi and people were saying now the country would be outgunned by the Indonesian air force….although if it’s true those Sukhoi aren’t even armed then that puts a rather different spin on it…
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realest says:
1) We can’t afford a war
2) FPI is offering to send their “capable” members and we certainly could use less of those guys around here -
Oigal says:
After a recent trip to KL and reading what they had so say about Indonesia, all I can say is are you guys serious? Are they not any adults around to run the countries?
Although, all rather boring. You don’t have to cast your mind too far back and it was the was Evil Singaporeans hiding the corruptors and stealing our sand (sold by whom?) and before that the Evil Australians trying to steal Papua…yawn…once again where are the adults in this picture..
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fabian says:
rustyprince is right, the episode was known as LA GUERRA DEL FUTBOL…
There was also a war against China, because western powers wanted to protect the freedom to sell drugst there, opium merchants, and iit caused the Boxers Rebellion…
Comment on “Defence: Delusion by Dilution”.
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It seems innocuous enough what’s led up to all this posturing but didn’t two Central American nations once go to war over a football match, so unfortunately maybe we shouldn’t discount the possibility of this recklessly escalating.