The Military Deployments of T2K

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by Rainbow Six

Yes, I think that's a relatively common theme...I've done it myself and I've seen several other British Orders of Battle that have a modest number of reactivated Battalions.

The trick, of course, is to not go stark raving mad about it!

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

The most likely reinforcement for the MEFF might be a recon regiment with Scorpions/Scimitars, possibly a Australian battalion group and, at most, a company from New Zealand.

You can forget about Australian troops being involved in the Middle East with a war raging with Indonesian, and a potential UN involvement in Korea. Same for New Zealand - local needs come well before foreign deployment.

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

You can forget about Australian troops being involved in the Middle East with a war raging with Indonesian, and a potential UN involvement in Korea. Same for New Zealand - local needs come well before foreign deployment.

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't Australia import a sizable percentage of oil from the Persian Gulf? With a local war threating/halting oil production from the Indonesian fields, would not the Australian government seriously consider commiting a battalion group, if only to acquire badly need oil?

The arguement can be made either way, it all boils down to how much crude oil is available, and how much refinery capacity survived any Soviet nukes. I'm just advancing a theory that the Australian government may see the need to secure both, a product that CENTCOM seems to have enough of.

Have to admit though, I neglected to consider any Australian commitment to Korea; but just how much would Australia send? I can see a battalion group, possibly two, but would a brigade be sent? Or would Australia decide a division would have to be committed?

LOL, this is where the lack of canon material on Korea inserts a monkey wrench!

[HorseSoldier]

Have to admit though, I neglected to consider any Australian commitment to Korea; but just how much would Australia send? I can see a battalion group, possibly two, but would a brigade be sent? Or would Australia decide a division would have to be committed?

I doubt they'd send anyone. Probably helping back stop the UK division in Hong Kong, rather than sending troops to Korea. The ROK Army in 1996/7 isn't going to need international bailing out at anything remotely approximating the level seen in the 1950s.

[Legbreaker]

Australia can barely scrape together a single Division on anything less than about 12 months notice. Any more and reservists have to be called up and trained.
Australia also has it's own oil reserves. It may not be massively productive Fields like Texas or the North Sea, but there should be enough production post nuke to support the country's vital needs (especially if a couple of the cities got hit).
Regarding China vs Korea, Korea would get the troops without a doubt. Korea is essentially a UN operation (regardless of who's actually commanding), while China is basically a fight between two sovereign nations - the USSR (plus allies) and China (plus whoever was in the area and got caught up in it).
North Korea has long been seen as the BIG EVIL in the area, much more than the Soviets. North Korea also has no/less nukes (depending on how you want to look at it), which means less likelihood of Australians being irradiated.

Regardless of where the troops went, the moment hostilities broke out with Indonesia they would be recalled - Australia simply doesn't have the manpower to hold off such a huge military (even a poorly trained, led and equipped military as Indonesia at the time). Same thing happened in WWII when the Japanese were coming across Papua New Guinea - the Divisions in the middle east (mainly northern Africa) were recalled immediately and sent from the deserts to the mountainous jungles.

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Australia can barely scrape together a single Division on anything less than about 12 months notice. Any more and reservists have to be called up and trained.
Australia also has it's own oil reserves. It may not be massively productive Fields like Texas or the North Sea, but there should be enough production post nuke to support the country's vital needs (especially if a couple of the cities got hit).
Regarding China vs Korea, Korea would get the troops without a doubt. Korea is essentially a UN operation (regardless of who's actually commanding), while China is basically a fight between two sovereign nations - the USSR (plus allies) and China (plus whoever was in the area and got caught up in it).
North Korea has long been seen as the BIG EVIL in the area, much more than the Soviets. North Korea also has no/less nukes (depending on how you want to look at it), which means less likelihood of Australians being irradiated.

Regardless of where the troops went, the moment hostilities broke out with Indonesia they would be recalled - Australia simply doesn't have the manpower to hold off such a huge military (even a poorly trained, led and equipped military as Indonesia at the time). Same thing happened in WWII when the Japanese were coming across Papua New Guinea - the Divisions in the middle east (mainly northern Africa) were recalled immediately and sent from the deserts to the mountainous jungles.

Ouch! Another good idea meets up with cold reality!

Thanks for the info!

[Abbott Shaull]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

Ouch! Another good idea meets up with cold reality!

Thanks for the info!

The reality is for many nation this would be the case, due to the fact had all made deep cuts even before the end of the cold war.