Read the news about Australian Navy procurement with power
projection. Talks about navy expansion here in asia..... Sizzling
!
They have a rather transparent procurement process. That is not
the case for most of Asia though. Singapore is secretive. You`ll
only smell it when it`s baked and ready to be served. The
Malaysians are hazy and confused mostly about what they want to get
due to political inteference and deep-seated corruption. The
Indonesian processes are leaky due the sheer size of the country
and the political apparatus. The Burmese are even more secretive
than we are. But I suspect that the country`s intelligence agencies
are probably littered with foreign and internal agents.
What is more interesting about the Australian navy`s plans and the
transparency it has gone about actualizing it is the trail-blazing
that it is doing for other countries in the region or the scenarios
she thinks that she will be in. It is likely that many countries in
SEA have already extrapolated similar scenarios.
The new RAN ships will only be coming online next decade. Is this a
picture of what the navies in SEA will be like ;albiet the RAN has
other global responsibilities as well? The RSN has already 6
Formidables in the water equipped with Asters. The last AA saw ST
Marine showcasing even larger stealthy ship designs with larger
tonnages. Both Malaysia and Indonesia are keen on increasing the
capabilities of thier respective navies as well.
Of course, this pales in comparison to the defence build-up in
North East Asia. But as they say, history always repeat itself. The
ancient crop of ex-WW2 leaders are just about gone. Future crop of
leaders in our region would be less than coy to flex thier military
muscle or even strain them to the point of conflict. This can
already be seen in some instances.
Is the RAN and therefore SEA preparing for a potential conflict in
East Asia which would pull all these countries in big or small
ways? Interesting times.