http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8567750.stm

South East Asian nations are ramping up their military capacity in a move that could destabilise the region, a new report says.

The report comes from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

It says that arms imports by Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia leapt by 84%, 146% and 722% between 2005 and 2009, compared with the previous five years.

Analysts put this down to the regional arms race, the need to replace old weapons and the growing might of China.

There have long been concerns in this part of the world about how quickly China is ramping up its army and naval forces.

Just a decade ago, the Chinese government spent less than $10bn (£6.6bn) dollars on its weapons supplies. Today that figure is closer to $80bn.

So it is no surprise military analysts say that countries like Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia are also keen to show off their military strength.

But in comparison to China's might, their arms purchases are insignificant.

It is not just because of China, though, that South East Asian nations are adding to their armies.

According to analysts, these countries have always harboured a deep-seated suspicion of their neighbours - so when one sees another spending more money on defence, it will follow suit.

As economies in the region expand and there are more funds around, it is thought likely we will see ever more of this arms competition in South East Asia.

Ive been keeping a close watch on this. thanks for putting this up.

SIPRI fails to take into account one very important element. The rise of India and China.

Both entities are arming at a fast pace. China alone has been logging 10% increases in official defence budget (and US will argue much more in unofficial budget which is supported by SIPRI estimates as well). Whilst China did slow defence budget increase to 7.5% this year, in comparison, SG, which is the top defence spender in ASEAN, went up only 0.07%. At the same time, China's 7.5% increase is on a far, far larger base than SG or ASEAN.

Direct neighbour like Vietnam can be expected to respond to this. Despite being further down the list, the increased purchases are obvious. Thailand's defence budget increases were strangely downplayed. It exceeded MY and ID in 2007 and 2008.

Now why would countries further south focus on longer range.... hmmm....

The article generalises too. A lot of the expenditure are direct response articles eg submarines, fighters in relation to the growing submarine, fighter threat. Its not just SE Asia but Australia too (earlier with collins and now F-35As).

India AF: 200+ suks + 126 MRCA, additional mig-29s and Tejas
India Navy: 10 kilos + 6 scorpenes + another 6 more likely planned + nuke subs + carriers.

China AF: 270+ suks + 200+ J-10s (and building) + 200 JH-7s (and building) + new H-6s + ALCMs + new gen fighter
China Navy: 12 kilos, 4 yuans and building, shang/jin nuke subs + potential carriers + varyyag refit + tons of new built surface vessels

In the height of the cold war, at least Europe had NATO alliance to count on US involvement and yet military expenditures was massive.

ASEAN does not have an official US shield. ASEAN real expenditure pales in comparison and its deterrent capability is discounted by SIPRI. One will probably argue that it reduces conflict risks as it discourages hitler/tojo-like ambitions for expansion.

The timing of the SIPRI article is like arguing NATO should have stopped defence expenditure at the height of the cold war. SIPRI's focus should have been on China/India's growing defence budget impact on SE Asia. That could have been a more positive correlation and more reflective of current military thinking in the region. Right now, the article appears to be more of an appeasement article that would be ignored as it is irrelevant.

fascinating, id try to dig up the SIRPRI article later when im more free.

i think something really interesting thats missing here is the assumptions that everyone is making. you're coming from an assumption that china and india's rise is not peaceful. the R karinol guy is coming from the perspective that increased defence expenditure = destabilizing, when counter intuitively, it could be stabilizing.

fascinating, fascinating. we live in interesting times.

Developing world has launched 'arms race': think-tank

(AFP) – 1 day ago

STOCKHOLM — Developing countries have embarked on a dangerous "arms race" with huge sums ploughed into combat aircraft in unstable parts of the world in the past five years, a top defence think-tank has said.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in an annual report to appear Monday that global arms sales had soared 22 percent in the period from 2005 to 2009 compared to 2000 to 2004.

Imports of combat aircraft accounted for 27 percent of the volume in the last five years.

"Orders and deliveries of these potentially destabilising weapon systems have led to arms race concerns in the following regions of tension: the Middle East, North Africa, South America, South Asia and South East Asia," it said.

According to the expert in charge of the report, Paul Holtom, resource-rich countries were setting the trend by using their earnings to build out their combat aircraft fleets.

"Neighbouring rivals have reacted to these acquisitions with orders of their own. One can question whether this is an appropriate allocation of resources in regions with high levels of poverty," he added.

In the case of South America, the institute found arms imports "were 150 percent higher during the last five years compared to the beginning of the millennium.

"We see evidence of competitive behaviour in arms acquisitions in South America," said SIPRI Latin America expert Mark Bromley.

"This clearly shows we need improved transparency and confidence-building measures to reduce tension in the region."

Brazil is currently looking to buy 36 combat aircraft with the French-made Rafale, Sweden's Gripen and the US F/A-18 in the running for the contract.

South East Asia also saw a dramatic increase between 2005 and 2009 with Malaysia ramping up its arms imports by 722 percent, Singapore 146 percent and Indonesia 84 percent.

The increase in arms imports to Singapore made the island country the first member of ASEAN to make SIPRI's list of top 10 biggest arms importers since the end of the Vietnam war, giving the nation seventh place overall.

"The current wave of South East Asian acquisitions could destabilise the region, jeopardising decades of peace," said SIPRI Asia expert Siemon Wezeman.

Vietnam has also been busy building up its military capabilities, ordering submarines and long-range combat aircraft in 2009.

Like Singapore, Algeria made it into the list of top ten biggest arms importers for the first time with the ninth place.

The United States kept its position as the world's biggest arms exporter, accounting for 30 percent of global volume. The Asia Pacific region took in 39 percent of US arms exports followed by the Middle East with 36 percent.

Combat aircraft made up 40 percent of Russian exports of conventional weapons and 39 percent of US deliveries.

ASEAN does not have official US shield....but the implications that US would not stand by idly should any hostilities occur due to Chinese aggressions are clearly there with US positioning of more assets in Pacific theatre and perhaps quietly in Changi??

The fact of the matter is yes, the region has alot of buying, but the report does not dig deeper into whether these purchases are also part of replacements of old hardwares.... of course there cannot be any discounting of arms race due to mutual distrust etc....but its almost a certainty that countries are motivated partly by such concerns when they buy arms. To solely level these purchases on this fact would be over-board.

dont know why cannot appear, anyway, to see the picture just click the link instead....

http://defense-studies.blogspot.com/


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_En-sxfOkXP8/S6AW...h/2009Sing1.JPG



http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_En-sxfOkXP8/S6AW...h/2009Sing2.JPG

i think the blog owner disabled deep linking. so cannot directly post the image file up.

i just reuploaded the image file to tinypic. should be able to see now. all credit to the source of the original blog, not mine.

pictures belong to: http://defense-studies.blogspot.com/





second link is really interesting though.

up to 182 leopards, inclusive of spares. fascinating :D from 66 to 99 to 132 and now 182

Just read the SIPRI report. Apparently Mr Karniol added a lot more than what was actually said which to be fair to SIPRI skewed the perception of what the report actually said.

http://books.sipri.org/files/FS/SIPRIFS1003.pdf

It is clear even from the figures that China and India both contributed 16% to recipient of arms sales.

I refer to the 100nos of R600 turret in the chart from SIPRI.

Is it the one that has the 7.62 gpmg and 40mm AGL on it? The one that we saw at the army open house on the Terrex?
I though I read somewhere the automatic turret system was suppose to be ST's own product? So its from Australia.. :blink:


Googled, but don't seem to be able to find much about this system though.

i suspect its actually meant for the warthog for the british army.

You may be right! The numbers tally with the warthogs...

Going down the wrong road guys with the warthogs.... :o

SIPRI is referring to the EOS R-600 (brochure) Remote Weapon Station on the Terrex which is a product of the Australian company, EOS (see EOS product range). If you search this forum, you will see that this was covered in a prior Milnuts thread. :P

I thought Singapore bought AIM-12C-7 as well?

See this:
http://www.dsca.osd.mil/PressReleases/36-b...apore_08-34.pdf

72 AIM-120C-5 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM)
128 AIM-120C-7 AMRAAM
6 AMRAAM Captive Air Training Missiles (CATMs)

This SIPRI listing is not right.

Thanks for the links and clarification dude!

There's a whole load of other missiles/munitions not reflected.

The 2006 year probably referring to this.
http://www.dsca.mil/PressReleases/36-b/200...apore_05-39.pdf

or
http://www.defenselink.mil/contracts/contr...contractid=3350

The 50 number probably referring to this.
http://www.defenselink.mil/contracts/contr...contractid=2741

Having said that, its not easy to pin down number. UN reporting already states 212 AIM-120 C-5s delivered by 2008. UN haven't reported 2009 figures. Add the 2008 dsca release numbers, it should be at least 284 AIM-120C-5s and 128 C-7s.

412 amraams suggests a regional outlook (not enough targets in the neighbourhood).

Each fighter carry 4 = 103 fighters needed. SG only has 84 F-16s/15s. The remainder is sufficient to equip 38 F-5s with 2 each. :) hmmm.....

India's growing dependence on arms imports is both a strength and a weakness. A strength because they have access to military technology that China cannot hope to have and a weakness because they have significant problems with their industrial strategy for local weapons manufacture. Ajai Shukla's analysis on the data and it's implications for India in quoted above.

could we sticky this thread please ? will be nice to be able to track and keep updates of regional arms purchases/ "SEA arms drive"

I have stumble an article by Tim Huxley on Defence Procurement in South East Asia.

http://ipf-ssg-sea.net/5th_WS/defence_proc..._Tim+Huxley.pdf

Hmm did I lose a post or was it deleted?

No one has deleted any post , including you yourself have not deleted any of your own posting.

Yes Sir! :D