Lack of immediate enemies, Of all the countries you named, almost all of them are in war-like circumstances. The current MEF program is aimed to fulfill the minimum essential force to guard the integrity of Indonesia against small and medium external threats. For example, Indonesian military in its peak operated a range of long range bombers to battle-cruisers because it was threatened by multiple adversaries in 1950s-60s. Moreover, current MEF program is also aimed at ramping up technological advancement of local strategic industries not producing at such massive scales.
Current military improvements are aimed more at the personal level and intelligence network since our immediate enemies are mostly terrorists.
Let's not dwell on the past.
We are talking about the present. At present, Indonesian Armed Forces severely lack in firepower. It's amazing.
Sweden? It has no immediate threats, and yet, it is far better equipped than Indonesia.
Same is true for Thailand or Singapore, or Vietnam. If you notice, Egypt signed the peace treaty with Israel, so Egypt does not have any real threats to its existence or borders either, but it still stocks up on a serious amount of western and other equipment for all branches of its military, even though, much like Indonesia, its domestic industry is deficient.
Singapore also stocks up on such an insanely high amount of weapons compared to Indonesia, that Singapore actually has stronger Army, Navy and Air Forces compared to Indonesia - in aggregate, based on equipment.
That is mind boggling if you think about it.
It's a bit like how Israel is/was so much stronger than Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia or Syria (pre-civil war) in terms of its active inventory of weapons despite being so much smaller.
Indonesia can not pretend to be a regional power without any serious industrial might (steel industry, automotive brands, consumer electronics brands, banks and pharmaceutical companies etc) science and technological output, top universities, or military might. That is what surprised me. I wish the best for all of the Muslim world, but as you know, Indonesia as it is, already represents about 1 in 7 of every Muslim in the world.
That is why I was surprised that Indonesian Air Force is even less well equipped than Jordan.
Lack of firepower it doesn't mean lack of vision or whatsoever. I don't think my country is so bad in term of firepower and military prowess compared to any middle power country in this world. You can said we lack in terms of air force power even compared to Singapore and Malaysia, but if it needed my country can do such crash programme to increase the level of power significantly. But right now we are living in peace, our neighbor is relatively calm too. For what we must maintain such large navy army and airforce if only draining our national resources unnecessarily? Just look at the dire condition of Pakistan and Egypt, they even can barely standing with half of their stomach is empty. With our geographic conditions and socio culture of my people, it is not the large of armed forces who can tied us together but the prevalence of social ordee be accompanied with equality in economic progress.
But you dont dare trying to provoked us in any arm races because it will be get ugly for most of our neighbors
Maybe your command of the English language is a tad too poor to compensate for your lack of comprehension of strategic affairs, so it does sound a little weird.
I wish the best for Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and all Muslim in general.
My question is, and your reply fails to answer it, why is Indonesia so poorly armed?
Why do you need to take a dig at Pakistan or Egypt?
Compared to Singapore or Australia, Indonesia is at least 10 times poorer on average. So Indonesians are worse than half-empty-stomach beggars in their eyes, and true, Indonesia sends millions of maids to Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and other rich countries. But none of those countries make these excuses, and when they have a strong armed force, they make sure its firepower is at least proportionate to its size.
I am just asking, is there any country of Indonesia's size (180 million + population) anywhere in the world that is weaker than Indonesia in military firepower?
Singapore or Israel are far stronger than Indonesia, Australia is still stronger than Indonesia, and they sure do not go hungry. Your argument is inadequate brother.
Whatever the case, I wish the best for Indonesia, and if you want Indonesia to be a strong regional player that can defend its interests, a strong armed force is a necessity.
