US, allies to rehearse airborne raid and train with tanks in Indonesia

Editor’s Note: This article by Seth Robson features quotes from CSP Senior Fellow, Grant Newsham.

American, Indonesian and British paratroopers are preparing a parachute raid from a base in Japan into a training area almost 3,000 miles away in Indonesia, according to the 25th Infantry Division’s commander.

The paratroopers will link up with Japanese troops in East Java for a combined jump on Saturday, Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans told Stars and Stripes by phone Thursday from Puslatpur Marine Base, Indonesia.

The “forcible entry” training is practice for taking terrain from an enemy force, Evans said. The raid involves around 200 paratroopers and is part of the largest-ever Super Garuda Shield, an annual exercise involving 5,000 personnel from seven nations, he said.

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The war in Ukraine has proved that tanks are not obsolete, according to Grant Newsham, a retired Marine colonel and senior researcher with the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies in Tokyo.

“Employed properly there is still a big role for tanks and armor,” he said by email Friday. “Our enemies know that as well.”

The Pacific region includes many areas large enough for tank warfare, Newsham added.

“Maybe not like the German invasion of Russia in 1941, but tanks can be extremely useful for fire support when taking on dug-in enemies,” he said. “A lot less costly than infantry having to close with and destroy the enemy.”

Paratroopers are useful anywhere or anytime commanders need to get troops on the ground quickly and sealift or airfields are unavailable, Newsham said.

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U.S. Army Soldiers and Indonesian Armed Forces make their way to an objective during a field training exercise by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0