One thing that i also consider makes us a fairly formidable force is arrogance. Many of our military personel are arrogant, self-confident, and decidedly professional - which in turn keeps them striving for their highest possible standards. In this case arrognace is not necessarily a bad thing, because the troops are good and they know it, and they'll do everything possible to keep their image up.

Rich

I'm just gunna stick up for the kiwis here.
There defence force is now very wel regarded in the Peace Keeping role it now specialises in.
In fact they are pretty damned good at it.
There Gov and military have obviuosly decided on a course for the future of the NZ defence force in the limited budget they have.
You could only mod the skyhawks so much before they become unviable, funny that we ended up leasing them back so that they could fly out of Nowra to help with training the navy.
As for the size of the Aussie defence force...... big is not always necesarily better. The dollar goes further with a small well equiped and trained force.
Our diesel subs are pretty good.
And just out of interest we nearly had a nuclear missile capeability in the mid to late 50's, except the Poms renigged on the deal and it fell by the wayside.
Now wouldn't that have upset the balance of power down here in the Asian Pacific region!

I think Australia has a good army but they need to work on their air force

I worked with the Aussie Airforce Airfield Defense Force guys when I was in the Middle East... Good guys, really keen.

"Good guys, really keen"

That makes me proud every time i hear them described like that - it promotes our image perfectly.

Rich

Originally Posted by Pete031

I worked with the Aussie Airforce Airfield Defense Force guys when I was in the Middle East... Good guys, really keen.

Ah yes the ADG's, the RAAF's very own nuckel draggers. In fact one of my mates is at Amberly doing his ADG training now. i was tossing up wheater to join the ADG's or the Infantry last year, I talked to a Defence Recruiter, and the Infantry seemed a hell of a lot more interesting, and exicting. That and the fact I don't live near an RAAF Base.

the budget is probably stretched to the breaking point with Australia supporting the US in Afghanistan and Iraq. Personally, I think the US would have been better to have said "Look we appreciate the offer, but a big help would be if you concentrated on Afghanistan."

I suppose that is totally overlooking the fact that the US command specifically requested that the Australian SAS and 4 RAR Commandos were the first soldiers into Iraq. LITERALLY THE FIRST. Weeks before the US even crossed the border, so don't talk to me about "we appreciate the offer" because we did things they wouldn't do ok.

Originally Posted by ozmilman

One thing that i also consider makes us a fairly formidable force is arrogance. Many of our military personel are arrogant, self-confident, and decidedly professional - which in turn keeps them striving for their highest possible standards. In this case arrognace is not necessarily a bad thing, because the troops are good and they know it, and they'll do everything possible to keep their image up.

Rich

you will find that in militaries all around the world mate

The arrogance, yes, but the muscle behind the mouth is something else altogether. It's not an arrogance to the point of telling everyone about it and shouting out 'we're so great!', it's a silent arrogance/confidence sustained in the knowledge of the fact that we are extremely pro at what we do.

Rich.

i rekon if you are the best you dont need to go advertise it, people will recognise you if you truly are. and lets face it, militaries train that much that is there really a great big difference between all the developed nations/world powers?