Covid-19 and Asean’s growing military arsenal

various fast attack craft were also inducted on the same occasion.

With a flight deck that can accommodate two helicopters, the

UMS Mottama is now the largest asset in Myanmar’s rapidly expanding fleet. It can carry 15 armored vehicles and a contingent of 250 marines while providing hospital facilities.

Brunei Darussalam. The Brunei Royal Navy’s center for excellence ( seamanship, warfare, weapon’s handling, firefighting and damage control, communication and engineering training) greatly enhanced the country’s naval operational capabilities with the receipt of offshore patrol vessels from Germany. The Regular Brunei Land Forces, on the other hand, count among its armored vehicles an assault armored vehicle from Jordan as well as armored command vehicle and armored recovery vehicle from the United Kingdom.

The country has shown interest in Russian- made air defense missile systems and upgraded main battle tanks.

Cambodia. The Royal Cambodian Armed Forces upgraded its military assets with more helicopters, armored vehicles and patrol boats.

China, by far Cambodia’s

closest ally in the Asean bloc, leads among countries that grant military aid to Cambodia. Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Laos’ military strength consists of patrol boats, tanks, armored vehicles, towed artillery and helicopters.

Laos and Russia have a long, close defense relationship, which extends to military education, law enforcement cooperation and purchase of military equipment deals. Vietnam helps Laos upgrade its military too.

As noted by leading provider of defense and security insight and information, IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly (UK), Asean countries are modernizing their armed forces as part of a wider Southeast Asian trend towards greater military capabilities. While it described the latest trends in preparation for war among world powers as revolving more

Around growth in ballistic missile defense, counter-unmanned aircraft system and weapons with multi-mission capabilities, there are significant signs that indeed cyber and artificial intelligence warfare and nuclear proliferation are the “game-changing” technologies of armed conflict in the near future. In this connection, reference is to the heightened conflict between the US and Iran which brought us nearer to a nuclear war.

Be that as it may, the Asean region is beset by internal threats of terrorism brought about by, to mention a few, the emergence of a terrorist quasistate in the Middle East as well as home grown terrorist attacks prompting governments to be on extreme alert; maritime security, e. g., piracy, kidnapping, smuggling, human trafficking, illegal fishing and illegal fuel transfers in ports and harbors; and environmental security as a consequence of climate-induced super typhoons, tsunamis, heavy monsoon, wildfires, etc. The latter especially demands strengthening Asean military capabilities in anticipation of possible climate wars, e. g., resource war ( oil and minerals availability and transport); water wars ( diminished water for agriculture leads to dwindling food supplies and water supply shortage for domestic use) and migratory wars ( huge movements of people from uninhabitable areas due to sea level rise and natural disasters). This means more soldiers with different training and weapons defense and security systems designed to operate effectively across the full range of foreseeable future environments altered by a warm climate.

Add to the enumeration the tension that prevails in the region as rivals jostle over territories in the West Philippine Sea which has enormous geo-strategic and economic significance.

Of late, the well-acknowledged secondary role of the military — assistance in times of natural calamities, climate disasters, health emergencies — became evident in countries around the world. Government- declared lockdowns, shutdowns, stayatshelter in place, community quarantine and physical distancing necessitated the presence of the military in city centers and borders to help in maintaining peace and order in the efforts to contain the spread of the dreaded coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) after the World Health Organization declared the contagion a pandemic.

In that connection, Asean countries could make use of their respective military intelligence capability in providing urgently needed combat researches on biological weapons in aid of their war against Covid- 19. Mutual assistance could extend to provision of early warning system for pandemics, personal protection equipment and testing kits. The range of assistance could further extend to immediate transport of drugs/vaccines, heavy medical equipment, gadgets and facilities for hospitals and laboratories, as well as food supply.

The changed security environment in the Asean region led to military arsenal procurement drives to ensure stability. Asean countries have also committed to bilateral and multilateral defense and diplomacy forums to enhance cooperative activities and capabilities. One such is the Asean Defense Ministers Meeting Plus (Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the UK). The forum is about peacekeeping operations, military medicine, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, counter-terrorism, mine countermeasures and maritime security. Another is the Asean Information Sharing Portal which facilitates information exchange between various operational centers within Asean navies. The portal can be accessed even via smart phones of individual officers.

Actually, the combined military “Balikatan” ( shoulder- toshoulder) exercises undertaken by Asean countries through the years is to ensure inter operabililty among its military services extending to the use of various equipment and weapons. Inter- operability extends to a limited form of capacity-pooling in submarine search-and rescue arising out of concerns over the safety of submarine operations. While Singapore has the region’s only submarine rescue capability, the pooling scheme will greatly improve the other Asean navies’ operating submarines in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

While working together in interoperability is a great way to attain security, the most pressing priority for Asean countries is to improve their intelligencegathering capabilities. More than any other time, the new era of “intel- centric” warfare using innovative information, communications and computer technologies demands the ability to assess, analyze and decisively act in an emerging situation of critical importance.

In short, military equipment and weapons advantage should be backed up by an effective intelligence capability.