Indonesia seizes the Andaman and Nicobar islands during the 1965 Indo-Pakistani war

Indonesia offered to provide Pakistan with military help, and 'to seize Andaman and Nicobar Islands' of India so as to distract it from the Kashmir front, eventually mobilizing submarines to help Pakistan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India–Indonesia_relations#History

Say Pakistan takes Indonesia up on the offer and Indonesia tries to seize the Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Would Indonesia be able to take the Islands

If they took the Islands would they be able to hold it against an Indian counterattack

What would be the impact

Map-of-India-showing-the-location-of-Andaman-and-Nicobar-Islands.png
 
What role would the US abd USSR play? India was pro soviet and both Pakistan and Indonesia pro US. Indonesia was allowed to get away with a lot of shit in the cold war because their anti communism.
 

longsword14

Banned
Indonesia was allowed to get away with a lot of shit in the cold war because their anti communism.
They either brutalized their own minorities, or other weaker people ( East Timor ).
The Indians would thrown their kitchen sink at them. In the 1965 war both the US and the USSR were in favour of restraint, so I don't see Indonesia getting any support over this foolishness.
 

Khanzeer

Banned
What role would the US abd USSR play? India was pro soviet and both Pakistan and Indonesia pro US. Indonesia was allowed to get away with a lot of shit in the cold war because their anti communism.
True but let's assume for a moment it happens , militarily can Indonesia pull it off ? What kind of forces will be involved ?
 
Indonesia and Pakistan were Soviet-sympathetic nation, so Indonesia attacking a US ally just for a bunch of islands is going to needlessly inflame tension between the US and the USSR. In India, it's going to look like the Muslim world is uniting with the Communists to threaten India's security.

But, as someone with a interest in North Sentinel Island, I'd be very interested if Indonesia even attempts to go to that island.
 

Khanzeer

Banned
Indonesia and Pakistan were Soviet-sympathetic nation, so Indonesia attacking a US ally just for a bunch of islands is going to needlessly inflame tension between the US and the USSR. In India, it's going to look like the Muslim world is uniting with the Communists to threaten India's security.

But, as someone with a interest in North Sentinel Island, I'd be very interested if Indonesia even attempts to go to that island.
Pakistan always showed extreme hostility to Soviets even though they repeatedly attempted to improve relations with them
 
To note the Indonesian navy has a large serious Navy to contest the island's with the KRI Irian a Sverdlov-class Light Cruiser fitted with modern Radar, anti-air artillery and better armor protection than the vast majority of the post World War Two gun cruisers with the only answer the Indian Navy has is is two pre-World War 2 Light Cruiser's that have not been modernized or even have radar!

The Indian Navy stands with 1 Carrier stuck in dry dock, 2 outdated Light Cruisers, 3 capable WW2 Destroyers, 3 WW2 escort Destroyers, probably around 8-10 Frigate's ranging from WW2 to 50s design and others.

VS

The Indonesian Navy stands with 12 late 40s design Diesel electric Submarines, 1 Modern Light Cruiser, 8 late 40s Destroyers modernized in the 50s, 2 late 50s escort Destroyers, 8 Frigates, 1 Don class submarine tender and others.

Note the Pakistani Navy still exist and will bottle up parts of the Indian Navy.
 
Given that this is pretty much the peak of the Konfrontasi there's a pretty good chance the Brits respond to what would likely be perceived as a flanking manoeuvre.

HMS Victorious would be on hand... Someone get writing this timeline.
 
Given that this is pretty much the peak of the Konfrontasi there's a pretty good chance the Brits respond to what would likely be perceived as a flanking manoeuvre.
You don't gain any strategic advantage over Malaysia by occupying the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as Sumatra already provides everything far closer and easier than the Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Indonesia-Political-Map.jpg
 

Khanzeer

Banned
To note the Indonesian navy has a large serious Navy to contest the island's with the KRI Irian a Sverdlov-class Light Cruiser fitted with modern Radar, anti-air artillery and better armor protection than the vast majority of the post World War Two gun cruisers with the only answer the Indian Navy has is is two pre-World War 2 Light Cruiser's that have not been modernized or even have radar!

The Indian Navy stands with 1 Carrier stuck in dry dock, 2 outdated Light Cruisers, 3 capable WW2 Destroyers, 3 WW2 escort Destroyers, probably around 8-10 Frigate's ranging from WW2 to 50s design and others.

VS

The Indonesian Navy stands with 12 late 40s design Diesel electric Submarines, 1 Modern Light Cruiser, 8 late 40s Destroyers modernized in the 50s, 2 late 50s escort Destroyers, 8 Frigates, 1 Don class submarine tender and others.

Note the Pakistani Navy still exist and will bottle up parts of the Indian Navy.
Very interesting lineup

Logistics will favor Indonesians as it's much closer to their homeland
 
To note the Indonesian navy has a large serious Navy to contest the island's with the KRI Irian a Sverdlov-class Light Cruiser fitted with modern Radar, anti-air artillery and better armor protection than the vast majority of the post World War Two gun cruisers with the only answer the Indian Navy has is is two pre-World War 2 Light Cruiser's that have not been modernized or even have radar!

The Indian Navy stands with 1 Carrier stuck in dry dock, 2 outdated Light Cruisers, 3 capable WW2 Destroyers, 3 WW2 escort Destroyers, probably around 8-10 Frigate's ranging from WW2 to 50s design and others.

VS

The Indonesian Navy stands with 12 late 40s design Diesel electric Submarines, 1 Modern Light Cruiser, 8 late 40s Destroyers modernized in the 50s, 2 late 50s escort Destroyers, 8 Frigates, 1 Don class submarine tender and others.

Note the Pakistani Navy still exist and will bottle up parts of the Indian Navy.

We know that the Indian Navy was due to a serious maintenance cycle effectively 1 Cruiser (INS Mysore Ex-HMS Nigeria a Fiji class 'light' Cruiser) and about 6 British made Frigates and these were (not) operating against the Pakistan Navy - basically the Indian Parliment had given their navy some wishy washy orders about not escalating the war and then only for some Indian MPs to criticise the INS for not doing enough!!!

However the large and serious Indonesian navy you speak of had no real legacy of manning a navy and in 1964 Irian for had to 'limp back' to Russia after only 1 year in service on 3 boilers (out of 6) with the Russians stunned by the lack of maintenance which coupled with the High salinity and mud content of the waters around Indonesia had done her in. The rest of the ships were 6 odd Russian DDs and a number of slower escort corvettes - there was a number of Whisky class SS (6 in operation)

On paper it looked impressive but you only have to peel away a bit of the flaking paint to realise that the KRI was not very capable

There was also the fact that in 1965 they were in the middle of the Konfrontasi with the British Commonwealth which may limit their ability to get involved with the Indians!
 
We know that the Indian Navy was due to a serious maintenance cycle effectively 1 Cruiser (INS Mysore Ex-HMS Nigeria a Fiji class 'light' Cruiser) and about 6 British made Frigates and these were (not) operating against the Pakistan Navy - basically the Indian Parliment had given their navy some wishy washy orders about not escalating the war and then only for some Indian MPs to criticise the INS for not doing enough!!!

However the large and serious Indonesian navy you speak of had no real legacy of manning a navy and in 1964 Irian for had to 'limp back' to Russia after only 1 year in service on 3 boilers (out of 6) with the Russians stunned by the lack of maintenance which coupled with the High salinity and mud content of the waters around Indonesia had done her in. The rest of the ships were 6 odd Russian DDs and a number of slower escort corvettes - there was a number of Whisky class SS (6 in operation)

On paper it looked impressive but you only have to peel away a bit of the flaking paint to realise that the KRI was not very capable

There was also the fact that in 1965 they were in the middle of the Konfrontasi with the British Commonwealth which may limit their ability to get involved with the Indians!

Yeah thats the general impression I get off Indonesian forces at the time. Nominally very strong but without much in the way of logistical tail and with a poor ability to actually use what they have.
 
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