These modern modular ship building techniques are amazing!

I think people don’t realise distances involved either.

Seoul is in reach of most North Korean artillery. And the US/ROK don’t have the resources to take out each one.

Any Korean War would be devastating for both countries as well as the global economy (South Korea is a major economic power these days).

Haven’t Chile taken delivery of quite a few F-16MLUs from the Netherlands since 2010? I can’t see them splashing out for any new Typhoons.

Chile took delivery of 10 new F-16C/D and 36 second hand F-16AM/BM.

There is still a squadron of F-5E/F Tiger IIIs (upgraded by Elbit) that will need replacing.

Fascist Italy was a great example of those drag factors degrading war fighting capability.

They lacked industrial capacity to properly support the war effort (e.g. building medium tanks or anti-tank guns).

The army was overall an extremely mixed force with some superb Bersigleri, Alpini and Paratrooper forces (shame about lack of transports) and extremely poorly equipped, trained and led infantry mainstay. This was partially due to rapid mobilisation but more importantly lack of resources – after all the Germans rapidly mobilised and even it’s infantry forces were quite good despite being constantly plundered for men for Panzer/Motorised Infantry formations and later diversion of good troops to SS..

To a degree there was a lack of adequate military culture other than in elite formations.

They lagged in technology – e.g. Italian ships lacked radar.

This is where countries like Indonesia and Mexico stand. They might develop quite reasonable economies but their military infrastructure is antiquainted in terms of not only equipment, but industry, technological advancement. human resources and military culture.

Is that really news worthy?

Planes get diverted with faults all the time.

While non-Hans are less than 10% of population, they still amount to some 100 million, a huge number by any standard. When you have 100 million people unhappy with the Han Chinese rule, troubles arise.

Surely China does. Never heard of Tibetan Buddhism and Islam of Uyghurs and Huis?

In fact, China’s permitting Western missionaries in Tibet to create a religious conflict between Tibetan Buddhism and Christianity in Tibet and weaken the Tibetans. http://world.time.com/2013/03/08/good-lord-in-china-christian-fundamentalists-target-tibetans/

Chinese issues with Uyghurs and Tibetans are nothing compared to the carnage often seen in Indonesian provinces with ethnic tensions.

From memory the Dayaks even got back in the business of headhunting.

Indonesia also has a radical Islamist element that has seen attacks on Western targets.

The Tibetans aren’t exactly involved in armed conflict – plus a lot of Tibet has become Han Chinese. The Uighurs are fighting more but it’s a losing battle.

China has the human and economic resources to make massed colonisation a lot more easy and a lot more successful than the Indonesians.

I think the key difference between China and Indonesia are:

1. Despite having some minorities, China is mainly Han Chinese. Indonesia is a conglomeration of various ethnicities many of whom spend their time trying to kill or overthrow their Javanese overlords (West Papua, Ambon, Aceh, Borneo, Malukas).

The Javanese are only 41% of the population. Han Chinese are 91% of the population.

Hence a lot of resources get tied up in policing efforts.

2. China does not have religious tensions like in Indonesia where religion is fueled and/or is fuelling ethnic and other conflict. Again costly and prevents expansion of other interests.

Increased threat of Islamism doesn’t promote stability or growth either.

3. Indonesia’s population pressures are much greater than China due to much smaller land mass – a lot of ethnic violence is due to colonisation of other areas by Javanese.

4. Since the 1960s the Indonesian army units have openly been allowed to pursue commercial interests – this was done as a funding substitute. A lot of the officer class is more interested in making cash than running their units.

5. Lack of industrial development. Unlike China, Indonesia has a much less developed industrial sector.

6. Indonesia will never match China. It’s population is much smaller and much more divided.

7. Indonesia is geographically dispersed across an archipelago of islands. It has no strategic depth. Furthermore widely dispersed populations makes it much more difficult to develop infrastructure (everything is via ship/plane). And there’s only so much growth you can have on Sumatra and Java (hence Javanese colonisation efforts on other islands).

This geographic dispersion also doesn’t help create national identity.

Now that Germany and France have the oversight over the Greek finances you can pretty much kiss the idea of Greece going for major deals with US-made hardware in the future goodbye.

But the Europeans don’t offer aid. Greece is still a recipient of US military aid – e.g. offer of 400 M1A1 plus 700 M113.

Or more importantly FMS.