The ANZACs in T2k

[Olefin]

FYI found some information on the Indonesian Air Force that you could use for the backstory on the Indonesian Australian conflict

In 1995/1996 they had the following aircraft:

Two squadrons of A-4E Skyhawks, one squadron of F-5E Tiger II, one squadron of F-16 and one squadron of OV-10F Bronco's. In addition they had five transport squadrons that were equipped with C-130 Hercules, CASANC-212 Aviocar, CN-235 and F-27's. They also had three Boeing 737's that were used for surveillance/transport. There were also assorted other aircraft that were in transport, helicopter and training units including 15 Hawks, 15 T-34C armed trainers and 36 AS 202 primary trainers

Will see if I can find more details for you but you could see a few surviving aircraft possibly here and there - especially the older aircraft that were easier to maintain

[Legbreaker]

Found a useful site about a week ago.

http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-6168.html

It's not perfect, but it's about the best I've found to date.
It's actually got most of the countries of the world in there, except it would seem close allies of the US and it's all from the early 1990's. http://www.country-data.com

[Olefin]

I recommend The Statesman's Yearbook - they have them for every year - you can get older copies online, on google books or they are for sale - lots of info on there about every country including their military - very useful books

Example is the 1993-1994 book on google books -

https://books.google.com/booksid=447JDQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+statesman%27s+yearbook+1995&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwilnainz9jhAhXKtlkKHSn9D184ChDoAQhGMAY#v=onepage&q&f=false

[lordroel]

I recommend The Statesman's Yearbook - they have them for every year - you can get older copies online, on google books or they are for sale - lots of info on there about every country including their military - very useful books

Example is the 1993-1994 book on google books -

https://books.google.com/booksid=447...page&q&f=false

Is there also for 1982 as i would like to know due to my ongoing Falklands timeline as i would like to know what Argentina and the UK had if that is in the book.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

I recommend The Statesman's Yearbook - they have them for every year - you can get older copies online, on google books or they are for sale - lots of info on there about every country including their military - very useful books

Example is the 1993-1994 book on google books -

https://books.google.com/booksid=447...page&q&f=false

Those yearbooks are a great resource. Nice find Olefin, I'd never heard of them before and sadly, in my little part of Australia, lack of knowledge of certain books is far too common. So thanks muchly for letting us know about them.

EDIT: I've just discovered that some of them are available on the internet archive, mostly from the very late 19th century and early 20th century but there are two from the later part of the 20th century.

The one for 1988-89 can be found here https://archive.org/details/in.ernet...00945/page/n11

And this one for 1970-71 https://archive.org/details/in.ernet...126738/page/n3

And another EDIT: If you want to join the site, you can download or read online some of the Year-books, including 1980-81 and 1981-82 versions

https://newbooksinpolitics.com/political/the-statesman-s-year-book-1980-1981/

[Olefin]

Thank you - glad to have been of help

FYI this is the link for the 1995-1996 book - which is about as close as you get to the real timeline start - keep in mind of course the military's it will show are after the drawdown after the Cold War had ended - the link takes you right to Mexico FYI

https://books.google.com/booksid=YKXPDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA944&lpg=PA944&dq=list+of+all+mexican+air+force+planes+1995&source=bl&ots=1C8kwN3Tpw&sig=5p0xsA_4cK8sXO4GOkcBXGW0mvw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiy5aqx0P_VAhWl5oMKHQL_CQQ4ChDoAQglMAA#v=onepage&q=list%20of%20all%20mexican%20air%20force%20planes%201995&f=false

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Leg, did you ever look at the Aus. Bureau of Statistics for info I ask because I have only just found their downloads page for their yearbooks of the state of the nation.
While the docs give overviews, projects and stats such as total number of personnel, they don't go into any finer detail so they may not be that helpful

This is the page for the 1990 yearbook

https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/1301.01990OpenDocument

And the specific pdf for the section on Defence
https://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/free.nsf/0/EA1A5CACAA16D17BCA25739C0008D1E6/$File/13010_1990_chapter4.pdf

I found it wasn't to much mucking about to get the various years by using "year book Australia 1990" in the search box (or whatever other year you wanted to check) so for example, here's the downloads page for 1995

https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/1301.01995OpenDocument

[Legbreaker]

I can't recall if I went there, but I do have most of that information I believe.
Second source is always good though!

Found a couple of useful items recently. Problem is they've opened a bit of a Pandora's box!

[Olefin]

Given that the war breaks out before the reduction of the Australian Army would the 8th/9th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment still be around If so would you have them be the battalion based in Papua New Guinea when the war breaks out there - if I remember right didnt they have the task of training their armed forces

[cawest]

Given that the war breaks out before the reduction of the Australian Army would the 8th/9th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment still be around If so would you have them be the battalion based in Papua New Guinea when the war breaks out there - if I remember right didnt they have the task of training their armed forces

also what about local made armored "cars" to support the fighting in the local area. I do not think they can make there own tanks, but rebuilding old ones might be do able.

RL they started building the ASLAV in 95 but the design was from 92. maybe Bushmaster protected mobility vehicle

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Well we actually do have some minor experience building tanks - in WW2. The Sentinel medium tank was designed and built in Australia when it looked like our supply of armoured vehicles from Great Britain was in jeopardy. It was a good vehicle comparing favourably with contemporary British & American designs (although with a poor turret layout for the crew) but rendered unnecessary by the availability of mass supply of tanks from the USA.
Plus there was local manufacture of Australian variants of the Universal Carrier as well as a local design, the Dingo armoured car and some armoured truck modifications.

Another item that sparked some interest with the T2k alternate timeline of Merc: 2000, an Australian company acquired the rights to the Shorland armoured car. This was in 1996 so not particularly useful for T2k timelines.
Plus we designed and implemented an upgrade for the M113 vehicles in service (to AS4 standard).

So all in all, we have the industry and the technical skills to build armoured vehicles including tanks but there is no "national need" for us to build certain vehicles e.g. tanks.
Obviously for T2k everything depends on the timeline being used but I would expect that (considering we had a Land Rover production facility in Australia for several decades supplying vehicles to the military), we would probably look at some sort of armoured car variant of the Landie at the very least. I don't think national need would extend to tanks but it's not beyond the realms of possibility.

EDIT: meant to also mention that the ASLAV design is based on the Canadian LAV design which in turn was based on the Swiss MOWAG Piranha vehicle. The Piranha in 4x4, 6x6 and 8x8 configurations has been available since the 1970s so if you tweaked the details, we could have acquired some sort of ASLAV in the 1980s.

[RN7]

Another item that sparked some interest with the T2k alternate timeline of Merc: 2000, an Australian company acquired the rights to the Shorland armoured car. This was in 1996 so not particularly useful for T2k timelines.

Doesn't the Twilight War not start in 1996

[StainlessSteelCynic]

As I recall it, Shorts sold the rights to the Shorland because they didn't see a market any longer for the vehicle in Europe (peace dividend etc. etc.) I imagine that in a T2k world, they would not sell the rights - tensions rising before '96, talk of war and so on, I tend to think they would not even be looking to sell.

[Legbreaker]

Yes, late in 96. I'd imagine the previous owners of the rights would be loathe to give them up though with a possible conflict about to kick off. There were plenty of warning signs leading up to Germany stepping over the border.


..again...

[Legbreaker]

Given that the war breaks out before the reduction of the Australian Army would the 8th/9th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment still be around If so would you have them be the battalion based in Papua New Guinea when the war breaks out there - if I remember right didn't they have the task of training their armed forces

There will be three Divisions in the year 2000 (as there was up until the early 90's), with units delinked as the military is brought up to strength. Therefore 8/9 RAR won't exist as such, but 8 RAR and 9 RAR will.

Note that the PNG military is a joke consisting of a total of approximately 1,000 personnel covering air, land and naval responsibilities. Most training beyond the most basic is carried out in Australia. IRL there are about thirty Australian instructors and observers in PNG. However in September 2018 it was revealed that plans were being made "for short-term troop deployments" to PNG although there were no further details at the time although the implication was it would be little more than Company strength.