The Thai military managed to obtain approval in September for a number of purchases - the go-ahead being received just hours before then prime minister Samak Sundaravej, Somchai's predecessor, was forced to resign. These included assault rifles from Israel, Igla MANPADs from Russia and a landing platform dock ship to be built by Singapore's ST Engineering.
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Southeast Asia: Cambodia and Thailand
While Southeast Asia enjoyed a relatively peaceful 2008, unrest in Thailand and the Philippines and an horrific natural disaster in Myanmar clouded the region's year.
Despite the military handing power back to a civilian government in December 2007, instability in Thailand only worsened as the year wore on, with protests by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) culminating in a blockade of Bangkok's main airport and violent street clashes in November.
While army chief General Anupong Paochinda offered assurances that there would be no repeat of the 2006 coup that ousted Thaksin Shinawatra, he intervened by urging Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat to call elections (he refused). Somchai was then banned from politics for five years by the supreme court after less than three months in charge and his party outlawed. Certainly, by early December Thailand's democracy appeared dangerously fragile.
The civil unrest ultimately overshadowed two other long-running issues dogging the country: the ongoing Muslim-Malay insurgency in the south; and a confrontation with the Cambodian military, which resulted in four soldiers' deaths in September, over the disputed ownership of the Preah Vihear temple on the Thai-Cambodian border. Thailand's political upheaval meant that neither issue was approaching resolution, though Cambodia responded decisively to the border flare-up by doubling its defence budget.
While the disturbances in Bangkok affected government decision-making, the Thai military managed to obtain approval in September for a number of purchases - the go-ahead being received just hours before then prime minister Samak Sundaravej, Somchai's predecessor, was forced to resign. These included assault rifles from Israel, Igla MANPADs from Russia and a landing platform dock ship to be built by Singapore's ST Engineering.
Earlier, in January, the government also gave final approval for the acquisition of the first six of 12 JAS 39 Gripen multirole combat aircraft ordered from Saab.
Malaysia experienced political turmoil of its own, if not on the same scale as Thailand's, though funding difficulties proved the main obstacle to the country's military development.
In September, it emerged that the purchase of 12 EC 725 helicopters for the Royal Malaysian Air Force was being postponed, and army chief General Ismail Jamaluddin said the army would have to defer its wheeled AFV replacement programme. Likewise, navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar confirmed that a number of naval programmes, including the procurement of Batch 2 Lekiu-class frigates, would be delayed, although the navy's Scorpene submarine programme was unaffected - the second and final boat, Tun Razak, launching in Spain in October.
However, other sources in Kuala Lumpur told Jane's that the government had sufficient funds but had chosen to postpone the programmes to ensure that outgoing Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also Defence Minister, was able to carry out political reforms. When his deputy, Najib Tun Razak, takes over as prime minister in March 2009, the postponed defence programmes could be resumed.
A dispute between Malaysia and Indonesia over the Ambalat sea region - an area rich in natural gas resources - persisted, with Indonesian military chief General Djoko Santoso claiming in October that Malaysian ships had continuously violated Indonesian waters there. Indonesian navy chief Admiral Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno added that the Indonesian Navy now has five warships operating in the area to prevent further Malaysian violations.
However, in a year of straitened funding for the Indonesian military, there was a suspicion that the military chiefs were using the Ambalat situation to persuade the government to release more money for its force modernisation programmes, which are currently stalled for lack of funding. A series of fatal accidents due to ageing equipment in the first half of the year had increased pressure on the military to modernise and Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono pledged to spend over USD10 billion over the next decade on equipment maintenance.
With the government also slashing the year's defence budget by 15 per cent because of the high price of oil, a programme of loans emerged as Indonesia's best hope of procuring new equipment and a USD300 million facility was secured in September, enabling the purchase from Sukhoi of three Su-30MK2 and three Su-27SKM aircraft.
Singapore suffered no such constraints, however, as it continued to develop its military into an advanced, world-class force. With delivery of the air force's 24 F-15Es on track for 2009, it was the navy's year to make real strides with the induction of three new Formidable-class frigates in February and the delivery of the sixth and last ship of the class in August.
A major exercise in South Africa in May also demonstrated the Singapore Armed Forces' 'third-generation, networked capabilities'. Geopolitically, Singapore's most significant move was to align itself increasingly with India, with the two countries signing a bilateral defence pact in August and Singaporean forces travelling to India for exercises in November.
In the Philippines, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's strategy of ending the long-running insurgency of the communist New People's Army by 2010 appeared to be progressing until the military's attention was diverted by a separate insurgency - that of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) - which erupted with devastating consequences for the island of Mindanao in August.
The government had agreed to set up a Muslim 'state within a state' in a bid to end the MILF's 40-year separatist campaign. However, when the country's Supreme Court, fearing the break-up of the Philippines, vetoed the arrangement, the MILF launched a wave of attacks across the island, causing more than 160,000 local people to flee their homes and provoking stern retaliation from the army. With trust between the two sides now all but destroyed, it was unclear whether negotiations could be resumed in 2009.
The loss of one of the Philippines' two operational C-130 transport aircraft to an accident during the fighting with the MILF made heavy-lift procurement a top priority for the military in 2009. Earlier, in July, the air force had announced plans to re-establish a dedicated air combat wing in around 2011 by investing USD1.1 billion in new fighter aircraft. However, like many countries in the region, the Philippines faced a shrinking defence budget due to global economic pressures and it was debatable whether these ambitions would be realised.
Fears for the stability of East Timor proved ultimately unfounded after President Jos� Ramos-Horta survived an assassination attempt in February. Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was killed in the attempt on the president and additional Australian troops were flown in to help steer the fledgling nation through the crisis. Ramos-Horta, who was seriously wounded in the attack, was able to resume his duties in April.
The region's toughest year, not for the first time, was had by Myanmar, where May's Cyclone Nargis left 130,000 people dead - a toll not helped by the reluctance of the country's military junta to accept offers of international assistance, despite little action on its own part to help the stricken areas. In particular, a US expeditionary strike group that was in the Bay of Bengal when the cyclone hit was prevented from coming to the Burmese people's aid.
The situation gradually improved, with close to a million people currently receiving aid from the World Food Programme in Myanmar. Yet the junta's grip on power seemed as firm as ever in spite of its cruel handling of the disaster. This was thanks in no small part to the continuing support of Myanmar's neighbours, in particular China, which was pleased to announce at November's Airshow China the sale of trainer aircraft to the Burmese military.
Read detailed
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Southeast Asia: Cambodia and Thailand
While Southeast Asia enjoyed a relatively peaceful 2008, unrest in Thailand and the Philippines and an horrific natural disaster in Myanmar clouded the region's year.
Despite the military handing power back to a civilian government in December 2007, instability in Thailand only worsened as the year wore on, with protests by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) culminating in a blockade of Bangkok's main airport and violent street clashes in November.
While army chief General Anupong Paochinda offered assurances that there would be no repeat of the 2006 coup that ousted Thaksin Shinawatra, he intervened by urging Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat to call elections (he refused). Somchai was then banned from politics for five years by the supreme court after less than three months in charge and his party outlawed. Certainly, by early December Thailand's democracy appeared dangerously fragile.
The civil unrest ultimately overshadowed two other long-running issues dogging the country: the ongoing Muslim-Malay insurgency in the south; and a confrontation with the Cambodian military, which resulted in four soldiers' deaths in September, over the disputed ownership of the Preah Vihear temple on the Thai-Cambodian border. Thailand's political upheaval meant that neither issue was approaching resolution, though Cambodia responded decisively to the border flare-up by doubling its defence budget.
While the disturbances in Bangkok affected government decision-making, the Thai military managed to obtain approval in September for a number of purchases - the go-ahead being received just hours before then prime minister Samak Sundaravej, Somchai's predecessor, was forced to resign. These included assault rifles from Israel, Igla MANPADs from Russia and a landing platform dock ship to be built by Singapore's ST Engineering.
Earlier, in January, the government also gave final approval for the acquisition of the first six of 12 JAS 39 Gripen multirole combat aircraft ordered from Saab.
Malaysia experienced political turmoil of its own, if not on the same scale as Thailand's, though funding difficulties proved the main obstacle to the country's military development.
In September, it emerged that the purchase of 12 EC 725 helicopters for the Royal Malaysian Air Force was being postponed, and army chief General Ismail Jamaluddin said the army would have to defer its wheeled AFV replacement programme. Likewise, navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar confirmed that a number of naval programmes, including the procurement of Batch 2 Lekiu-class frigates, would be delayed, although the navy's Scorpene submarine programme was unaffected - the second and final boat, Tun Razak, launching in Spain in October.
However, other sources in Kuala Lumpur told Jane's that the government had sufficient funds but had chosen to postpone the programmes to ensure that outgoing Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also Defence Minister, was able to carry out political reforms. When his deputy, Najib Tun Razak, takes over as prime minister in March 2009, the postponed defence programmes could be resumed.
A dispute between Malaysia and Indonesia over the Ambalat sea region - an area rich in natural gas resources - persisted, with Indonesian military chief General Djoko Santoso claiming in October that Malaysian ships had continuously violated Indonesian waters there. Indonesian navy chief Admiral Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno added that the Indonesian Navy now has five warships operating in the area to prevent further Malaysian violations.
However, in a year of straitened funding for the Indonesian military, there was a suspicion that the military chiefs were using the Ambalat situation to persuade the government to release more money for its force modernisation programmes, which are currently stalled for lack of funding. A series of fatal accidents due to ageing equipment in the first half of the year had increased pressure on the military to modernise and Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono pledged to spend over USD10 billion over the next decade on equipment maintenance.
With the government also slashing the year's defence budget by 15 per cent because of the high price of oil, a programme of loans emerged as Indonesia's best hope of procuring new equipment and a USD300 million facility was secured in September, enabling the purchase from Sukhoi of three Su-30MK2 and three Su-27SKM aircraft.
Singapore suffered no such constraints, however, as it continued to develop its military into an advanced, world-class force. With delivery of the air force's 24 F-15Es on track for 2009, it was the navy's year to make real strides with the induction of three new Formidable-class frigates in February and the delivery of the sixth and last ship of the class in August.
A major exercise in South Africa in May also demonstrated the Singapore Armed Forces' 'third-generation, networked capabilities'. Geopolitically, Singapore's most significant move was to align itself increasingly with India, with the two countries signing a bilateral defence pact in August and Singaporean forces travelling to India for exercises in November.
In the Philippines, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's strategy of ending the long-running insurgency of the communist New People's Army by 2010 appeared to be progressing until the military's attention was diverted by a separate insurgency - that of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) - which erupted with devastating consequences for the island of Mindanao in August.
The government had agreed to set up a Muslim 'state within a state' in a bid to end the MILF's 40-year separatist campaign. However, when the country's Supreme Court, fearing the break-up of the Philippines, vetoed the arrangement, the MILF launched a wave of attacks across the island, causing more than 160,000 local people to flee their homes and provoking stern retaliation from the army. With trust between the two sides now all but destroyed, it was unclear whether negotiations could be resumed in 2009.
The loss of one of the Philippines' two operational C-130 transport aircraft to an accident during the fighting with the MILF made heavy-lift procurement a top priority for the military in 2009. Earlier, in July, the air force had announced plans to re-establish a dedicated air combat wing in around 2011 by investing USD1.1 billion in new fighter aircraft. However, like many countries in the region, the Philippines faced a shrinking defence budget due to global economic pressures and it was debatable whether these ambitions would be realised.
Fears for the stability of East Timor proved ultimately unfounded after President Jos� Ramos-Horta survived an assassination attempt in February. Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was killed in the attempt on the president and additional Australian troops were flown in to help steer the fledgling nation through the crisis. Ramos-Horta, who was seriously wounded in the attack, was able to resume his duties in April.
The region's toughest year, not for the first time, was had by Myanmar, where May's Cyclone Nargis left 130,000 people dead - a toll not helped by the reluctance of the country's military junta to accept offers of international assistance, despite little action on its own part to help the stricken areas. In particular, a US expeditionary strike group that was in the Bay of Bengal when the cyclone hit was prevented from coming to the Burmese people's aid.
The situation gradually improved, with close to a million people currently receiving aid from the World Food Programme in Myanmar. Yet the junta's grip on power seemed as firm as ever in spite of its cruel handling of the disaster. This was thanks in no small part to the continuing support of Myanmar's neighbours, in particular China, which was pleased to announce at November's Airshow China the sale of trainer aircraft to the Burmese military.
Read detailed
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