What do you think of Russian army regular soldiers capabilities compared to TNI AD regular soldiers?
Does TNI AD regular soldier have better capabilities than their Russian counterpart or worse?
The difference is the conscription system vs the volunteer system.
Russia uses a conscription system, males aged 18-27 are up for the draft. The thing is this range is pretty wide that they have 9 years range of age for conscription and serve for 1 year. That means Russia actually have a
shortage of men that they require such a law to fill the ranks (well consider that they lost millions of men in wars). Not only the conscription is universally enforced, but the training and on-the-job time are short, bullying is commonplace and living condition is poor.
Indonesia uses a voluntary lifelong service system. So males aged 17 and above are eligible to enter military services. The thing is they have a strict age limit on recruitment, many service branches only admit private level students aged 21 at the eldest, while officer level 30-32 years old. So Indonesia
limits the number of people eligible for military service. That means the personnel is regarded as an expensive asset rather than "cheap resources". After being admitted, military personnel is expected to serve until retirement, but considering many see the military as a prestigious institution most are OK with it.
Both poses different advantage and disadvantages.
Advantages of the Russian system:
- Better management of manpower reserves
- Larger manpower reserve
- Cheaper cost in the long run
- Steady stream of troops suited for wartime replenishment
- Predictable recruitment system
Disadvantages of the Russian system:
- Poor morale
- Inadequate training due to short service time
- Conscripts don't have any idea why they are there
- Very inconsistent troops quality, tended to be poor fighting spirit if maintained incorrectly
- Requires tremendous investment in maintaining the system
Advantages of the Indonesian system:
- Personnel are voluntary and therefore morale can be better maintained
- Can select the best candidates
- Better for personnel career and education advancement
- Longer training time = more indidivual capability
- Longer tour of duty time = more peacetime experience
Disadvantages of the Indonesian system:
- Costly
- Smaller force potential in a large war
- Reserve management is negligible, personnel hard to replace in event of massive losses
- Military being prestigious and lucrative job makes the soldier tend to be corrupt and self-serving
- Bureaucratic and aristocratic, often become detached from reality by serving outdated doctrines and interests