Quote:
Originally Posted by sglancy12
The Australian military might need the nukes to fend off the Indonesians.
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Doubtful I'd have to say. Back in the day this particular scenario was the one we trained for the most. Yes numerically Indonesia has a larger army, but the problem they faced was getting those numbers safely onto the Australian mainland and in a location they could actually DO something. The north of the continent is largely one great big open desert - you can drive for half a day without coming across even one other traveller let alone a settlement, and that's on the highways!
While the Australian military is relatively small, it's highly trained, well equiped, and if an enemy was on the doorstep, you can bet highly motivated! The navy, admittedly has had a few troubles in recent years (the poor service record of the Collins class submarines spring to mind), but they'd still manage to put serious pressure on Indonesian troop and supply convoys. As the Indonesian forces moved southward, the lack of viable land transportation option would force supply by shipping, further exposing them to being cut off by naval and air assets.
Yes, we might have a few hundred thousand (give or take) foriegn troops on our soil, but give it a few months (probably MUCH less without supply) and our biggest problem would be finding enough guards for the prison camps!
Why use nukes if the environment itself can do the job for you?
In the wet season (roughly equating to summer), travel on anything but sealed roads in the north is a nightmare (and even some of the sealed roads are often cut by flooding). In the dry season (the other 6 months) water and dust are a MAJOR problem. Now take soldiers used to tropical jungles, etc and drop them into that and see how they do....
In the much more likely event that hostilities are confined to Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and East Timor, nukes just aren't appropriate. Engagements often involve much smaller units due to restrictions in the terrain itself as was shown by the WWII battles along the Kokoda track where 10,000 Japanese were held back intially by a company sized unit of Australian Militia.