Who is the most powerful military in ASEAN 2017? (New Analysis)

The expenditure of the military budget of Southeast Asia is still relatively small compared to other regions in the world. Referring to data from SIPRI, South East Asia's total military expenditure is only 2.8 percent of total worldwide military budget by 2016.

That year, Southeast Asia issued a military budget of $ 37.91 billion. This figure is only about one-eighth of the East Asian budget. East Asia, the same year is known to spend $ 308.11 billion in military funds, or 18.73 percent of the overall world military budget.

Proportion of World Military Spending 2016

Southeast Asia is not an area that is not taken into account. There are several areas in Southeast Asia that serve as a base or location of defense cooperation of the United States in the context of US military dispositions in the Western Pacific. In The Military Balance 2017 published by The International Institute for Strategic Studies states that in the Bangkok area, Thailand, there is a Joint Military Advisory Group. In addition, in Singapore there are two places for the Navy (Sembawang and Paya Lebar) as well as one place for the Air Force base (Paya Lebar).

In the Philippines, there is defense cooperation by providing permanent facilities for US troops at Antonio Baustista Air Base, Basa Air Base, Fort Magsaysay, Lumbia Air Base, MActan-Benito Ebuen Air Base. In addition, the Philippines also provides its place for the US Air Force at Clark Air Base, as well as for US Marines at Camp Aguinaldo. The importance of Southeast Asia is mainly due to the issue of South China Sea dispute.

South China Sea dispute involves Southeast Asia with several major countries, especially China and Japan. The existence of China's ambition and great power in ensuring some of the island's territories and boundaries in the South China Sea dispute have invited the United States to enter the competition map.

In Index Power released by Global Fire Power in 2017, in Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Vietnam ranked first and second in terms of the value of this index. Indonesia is ranked 14th in the world with an index value of 0.3347, while Vietnam is in the 16th position of the world with a value of 0.3587. Based on Global Fire Power, Laos is a country in Southeast Asia with the weakest military power. The index value in 2017 is 3.0608 and is ranked 124 out of 133 countries.

ASEAN military index 2017

The Power Index is basically the combined value of various variables: the number of military personnel, the power of defense equipment, the budget, the value of a country's debt, the geography of the region, and so forth. The smaller value in Index Power means better military strength. Countries with good index scores are not necessarily strong in the matter of defense equipment. Or, conversely, a country with a low score is not necessarily a small proportion of the number of its military resource personnel.

To get a true picture of military power, it can not only be viewed on a score basis, but it needs to look deeply at each component. Based on the number of military personnel, Singapore is a country in Southeast Asia which has the ratio of military personnel to the highest population among other countries.

The ratio of military personnel to the population there is 1:11, meaning that every member of the military is responsible with 11 residents. While Indonesia, the ratio of 1: 264, where every member of the military is responsible for 264 residents.

Military personel to citizen ratio

Apart from the military personnel, military power is also visible from the defense equipment owned by a country. The power of military armaments itself can be divided according to its dimensions. There is an army, navy and air force. Not all countries in Southeast Asia have uniform military power for all levels of the dimension. In fact, the tendency is that the army's dimension becomes the dominant military force in the region, although countries like Indonesia and the Philippines are archipelagic countries, ideally, naval force must be a major military force.

ASEAN Army power comparation

From the comparative analysis using Global Fire Power data, the dominant force of the army in Southeast Asia is from the Vietnamese country. Vietnam occupies a leading position in army armaments with 1,545 combat tanks, 3,150 armored vehicles, 524 self-motion artillery, 2,200 artillery and 1,100 rocket launchers. While Indonesia, an area much larger than Vietnam, is in fourth position with 418 combat tanks, 1,089 armored vehicles, 37 self-motion artillery, 80 artillery and 86 rocket launchers.

ASEAN Navy power comparation

For the power of navy, it is known that Thailand has a superior equipment from Indonesia. Even though, the territorial sea of Indonesia is much larger, but Thailand has 1 aircraft carrier, 8 Frigrat ships, 7 corvettes, 32 patrol boats and 7 battleships. While Indonesia has only 7 frigrat ships, 24 corvettes, 4 submarines, 74 patrol boats and 12 warships. In fact, Indonesia has absolutely no aircraft carrier.

ASEAN Air force power comparation

Even strength of air force equipment, controlled by Thailand. Thailand has 76 fighter aircraft, 95 attack aircraft, 327 transport aircraft, 154 training aircraft and 7 attack helicopters. While Indonesia, has only 39 fighter aircraft, 58 attack aircraft, 170 transport aircraft, 111 training aircraft and 5 attack helicopters.The South China Sea dispute, the presence of US military or the need for increased military power for domestic purposes eventually led to the dependence of imports of armaments in Southeast Asian countries. In the period 2015-2016, Vietnam became the highest state in the matter of import of armaments in Southeast Asia. The second position is occupied by Indonesia.

The value of ASEAN arms trade

From several countries in Southeast Asia, it is known that only three countries are capable of exporting defense equipment. Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand. Singapore and Indonesia are known to have the same total export value, over the period 2015-2016, which is worth $ 94 billion. While Thailand, only able to export alutsista worth $ 2 billion US dollars for the same period.

This illustrates that the military power of countries in Southeast Asia varies greatly. The general data on the Index Power from Global Fire Power that placed Indonesia in the first position in Southeast Asia did not necessarily show that alustista or Indonesian military personnel were "above the wind" compared to neighboring countries.

Indonesia, in terms of detail defense equipment or personnel was still "lost" with neighboring countries. Given the threat of regional stability, especially with regard to military presence from other regions; South China Sea dispute; or strengthening for domestic security aspects; the import of defense equipment tend to be the first aspect of the regional military competition. Southeast Asia is likely to continue to develop into a military market for developed countries.

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