Aussie MBT's

Zastava-Arms

Zastava-Arms

Banned
Was looking through Wikipedia and I noticed that APPARENTLY Australia only has 59 ABRAMS MBT'S in Service.

You know, I find that kind of unlikely. I mean, Australia isnt exactly a third world country, isnt it? I thought they would have WAY more tanks.

I checked me calculator, and it says that if they divided the tanks to the states/territories then each state and territory will have 7-8 tanks [Which is ridicolous when you think of western australia].

Im just wondering, I highly doubt the 59 figure is accurate. Can somebody enlighten me?
 
Considering we only have 1 Regiment with them, 1AR, based in Darwin, I would suggest that number is probably right. Maybe if we have any tankies here they could confirm this.
 
Not true. Considering the type of armies that are likely to be a direct threat to Australia, I can see 59 Abrams MBTs being a huge headache for any commander being tasked to secure a beach head in Australian soil.
 
Sounds like payback for your thread in joining the military.

59 tanks will do fine, especially surrounded by infantry who know whats going on. Australia knows how to fight, much better then those eastern Europe nations that you worship. Be glad you get to grow up in safety.
 
Big_Z said:
Sounds like payback for your thread in joining the military.

59 tanks will do fine, especially surrounded by infantry who know whats going on. Australia knows how to fight, much better then those eastern Europe nations that you worship. Be glad you get to grow up in safety.
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Hows it payback? Yes im sure the Australian army would be able to utterly decimate Russia in a war. Russia has no chance, them dayum Commies!
 
Big_Z said:
Sounds like payback for your thread in joining the military.

59 tanks will do fine, especially surrounded by infantry who know whats going on. Australia knows how to fight, much better then those eastern Europe nations that you worship. Be glad you get to grow up in safety.
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Finest soldiers in the world, but I would have that opinion!
Bring the commies on I say
 
Zastava-Arms said:
Even so, I think that 59 tanks could barely do Jack Schitt if someone invaded.
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who on earth do you think is going to invade australia ?
and if they did who is capable of getting the troops for our tanks to engage to australia an army at the bottom of the arafura sea isn't the biggest threat to australia.
 
Some of Australia doesnt lend itself well to tank warfare. Espicially in the North and East where its Rainforests and Marshes (pun not intended).
 
captiva303 said:
who on earth do you think is going to invade australia ?
and if they did who is capable of getting the troops for our tanks to engage to australia an army at the bottom of the arafura sea isn't the biggest threat to australia.
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Better safe than sorry, you know.

So are all the tanks in Darwin or are some of them abroad?
 
Even if some where deployed I´d imagine that wouldn´t be a topic fit for chit chating about on an open board?
I dunno how it works in Aussie land, but over here we are not talking about who are where and when..

As for the number of MBT.s available, one would think the goverment would have thought about how many would be needed to solve the missions they are tasked with?

//KJ.
 
I dunno how it works in Aussie land, but over here we are not talking about who are where and when..
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Conventional force levels and units are talked very openly about, even on deployment. Special Forces are among the most secretive in the world.

Is the tasking open information and where could one read up on it if one wanted to?
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It's pretty much to maintain regional security to prevent them destabilizing and become hostile to Australia and be under the influence of those who might be against us. Something the US failed to do around the Caribbean, i.e Cuba. Also to help America out so if the time comes we can cash in our cheques and won't have to speak another language.

Check out the defence white paper if you want.

http://www.defence.gov.au/whitepaper/
 
Zastava-Arms said:
Was looking through Wikipedia and I noticed that APPARENTLY Australia only has 59 ABRAMS MBT'S in Service.

You know, I find that kind of unlikely. I mean, Australia isnt exactly a third world country, isnt it? I thought they would have WAY more tanks.

I checked me calculator, and it says that if they divided the tanks to the states/territories then each state and territory will have 7-8 tanks [Which is ridicolous when you think of western australia].

Im just wondering, I highly doubt the 59 figure is accurate. Can somebody enlighten me?
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i am assuming you have been on Wikipedia or something comparing various defence forces from around the world and noticed that when compared to australia we appear to be lacking in the tank department here are some reasons for this

australia as a country is very difficult to invade as it has no land borders so as a country australia does not need tanks to defend its self from invasions unlike other countries. Australia's defence in a very unlikely invasion is to detect and destroy the enemy in its maritime approaches.

the only credible threats to australia (as in invasion) would be Indonesia and china but Indonesia lacks the ability to get its troops here and its air force is practically a non event and as for china at the moment it couldn't get its troops here either although they are expanding this capability
also any Chinese attempt would be defeated on our maritime approaches.
the Chinese would not be able to threaten the Australian mainland effectively without using Indonesian airbases which in this situation indonesia would be undoubtedly our allies as xenophobia in Indonesia is immense

the reason we have tanks at all appears to be that we may use them in overseas deployment

to retain expertise to further develop our armored forces in the event of of a major war rather than starting them from scratch

it would also seem that a matter of pride and a tradition of not going backwards in terms of capabilities "we have had armor in the past so why give it up on the now"

and anyway if our defence force completely fails in its objective to prevent any invasion force arriving (highly unlikely) i would imagine 59 tanks would come in handy
 
Yeah it does look like the Aussie's have a fair number of IFV's and APC's. Guess they would be more important for "Da bush mate" than a tank would.
 
Zastava-Arms said:
Hows it payback? Yes im sure the Australian army would be able to utterly decimate Russia in a war. Russia has no chance, them dayum Commies!
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No offense brother but that is not true IMO. If a russian farts rather loudly, there is more than one country that will be on alert and history says there is a reason for that. Not sure what made you say that.

Reg tanks, I guess 59 of them is enough. Anyone trying to invade them ( which they wouldnt) has to go via navy or air force. I guess they have good enough defenses to stop invation via those channels.
 
If you are discussing the M1, depending on the version it's the #1 MBT in the world. It's very expensive to maintain and operate. The cost to keep the crew well trained is very high. The armor is classified, the weapon system is top notch and the only shortfall would be the crew proficiency. A single tank regiment is a very, very powerful force, it would have 59;120 mm cannon, 59; .50 cal MG, 59; M240 (or like MG) 7.62mm. Also the regiment would have a platoon of mortars, and perhaps some type of IFV (not sure what type the Aussies are using). This is if the regiment were employed as a regiment and not tasked out to support the infantry operations. Just some food for thought.
 
Not to breach OPSEC or anything, but I can tell you the number is definitely higher than 59.

Remember, there's not just 1AR who has them... you have to train in them first to learn to drive them right? :)

And it's on public record that a number of M1's are at School of Armour, so that should answer the questions posed as far as anyone needs to know them.

Defence also has it's current deployments on it's website. All you need to do is look at them, read about what those deployments actually are and ask "Would they be using MBTs there?"
 
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