Indonesians With Infantry
Indonesia's military force is called the TNI (Tentara Nasional Indonesia, Indonesia National Army). The branches are TNI Angkatan Darat (Army), TNI Angkatan Laut (Navy) and TNI Angkatan Udara (Air Force). They have several spec ops groups, most notably Kopassus (Komando Pasukan Khusus). The spec ops units are notorious for friendly fire incidents in Timor Leste, friendly fire incidents in Aceh, friendly fire incidents during training [1], atrocities against Malaysian civilians, atrocities against East Timorese civilians, atrocities against Acehnese civilians, and probably shooting protesting college students. Indonesian equipments boast very high reliability, and in some cases, abilities not present in their foreign counterparts. For example, during several trainings in the 80s (or is it the 90s?), several APCs were able to dive underwater for a very long stretch of time. [2] The most recent accident involving TNI's military equipments was in May 2009, when a C-130 Hercules carrying about 100 soldiers crashed into a village in East Java, killing almost everyone on board and several villagers. If you ask an Indonesian about this, there's a pretty high chance they would just say "What?"
Aside from doing things the government isn't comfortable to admit in Timor Leste, Malaysia and Aceh, they've also participated in the UNPROFOR. They also have a marine corps, which is attached to the Navy. They're pretty well-equipped, operating BTR-80 AP Cs and PT-76 amphibious tanks, however they're relatively unheard of compared to the other branches.
Equipment
- The standard service rifle is the SS1 (Senapan Serbu = assault rifle), a licensed copy of the Belgian FN FNC carbine made by the government corporation (BUMN) PT Pindad. HK G3, M16 and 5.45 mm AK variants are also used, the latter oddly enough are more often seen in the hand of cops guarding ATMs while they're being filled. The spec ops units often use M4, HK G36 and Steyr-Mannlicher AUG. Recently, PT Pindad started manufacturing an assault rifle called the SS2, which looks like an M16 with AK gas block, reversed front sight and slightly different detachable carrying handle (Indonesians aren't big on originality).
- As for sniper rifles, they mostly use the Remington 700, HK G3SG1 and the much-hated Galil-Galatz. [3] The special forces also use the PGM Hecate II, a .50 caliber French bolt-action rifle.
- They own several French AMX light tanks, as main battle tanks aren't suitable for the Indonesian streets... Or so they think. Indonesian buildings aren't very tough, you see. They also operate BTR-80 AP Cs and V-150 Commando IF Vs. Early Cold War-era British armored cars also appear occassionally. Land Rover Defenders and Singapore's Flyer are used by both the police and the army, sometimes mounted with anti-aircraft guns or Singapore's CIS automatic grenade launchers. The South African Casspir is used by the police. Also, the older BTR APCs are very very rickety: some of them sank during amphibious assault trainings. As for the local ones, Pindad also has started producing the Pindad Panser (meaning armored car), a rather plain looking APC, but that wouldn't be necessarily bad if Indonesia's equipments didn't have the nasty tendency to fall apart at the worst possible moment. They have also made several anti-riot vehicles.
- They have F-16 and Su-27 fighters. They also have A-4 Skyhawk and OV-10 Bronco ground attack crafts, but don't like to admit it, the former because they were bought from Israel, and the latter because they were bought for COIN operations in East Timor. The TNI AU is the second military force outside of the US to operate the C-130 Hercules cargo planes, though all of them are very very very very very rickety. They have several (presumably rickety) black Mi-24 Hind gunships. The Mi-8 Hip helicopter is used by both the army and the police. The navy owns several types of naval helicopters, mostly British. (A similarity that runs across every single one of their equipments is that they like to break down. A lot.)
- The police force is called Polri (Polisi Republik Indonesia). Regional units are called Polda (Polisi Daerah). They're quite prone to human right abuses such as torturing prisoners and extracting informations at gunpoint. Indonesian detention facilities are generally not very nice, with drug circulation, low ventilation, bad hygiene and beating everywhere. Except if you happen to be a rich corruptor, in which case you can get a hidden air conditioned room with luxurious facilities, and occasionally porn DVDs...hell, sometimes you can even get the real thing.
Notable Units
- The Brimob (Brigade Mobil) is pretty much the Indonesian SWAT, only they're less specialized and often perform tasks commonly done by the normal cops in foreign countries.
- The Kopassus (Komando Pasukan Khusus, i.e. The Special Forces) have tales of rampant badassery throughout its ranks. Some of it even stray into the supernatural sometimes, the most famous being one tale where a Kopassus soldier shrugging off a sniper round to the temple in a live-fire exercise.