Those could easily be the older T64's and a single battalion of those is 39 or so tanks.
IIRC it was mentioned earlier that Damar was suspected of supplying Lord Industries with rare minerals which could be a source of the money required to purchase and maintain so many military assets.
Of course I could easily be wrong :).
As North Korea has shown us, even the smallest of nations can have obscene amounts of military hardware at the expense of their civilians' health and well being.
Hangman--I believe they are T64s. They're older models, probably purchased from China. And your recollection of how Darmar gets money to buy this stuff is also correct (if you believe Dandy-Lion from back in Issue 6). Darmar allegedly has a secret Drainomyte mine that Lord Industries has exclusive access to, in exchange for money/armaments.
Quick! Everyone attack Damar now. They've sent all their military assets to one part of the border!
I know there's no chance of that happening... wait I was thinking outside forces, but what about the rebels? Storm the capitol while Fusion's giving you a distraction!
This is only hours after Fusion first arrived; anyone looking to capitalize probably wouldn't have time to mobilize. Plus I'm sure the government leadership is still very well protected (perhaps even better protected than usual in response to the "imminent threat").
when we invaded iraq they had an army so much larger than ours that we would have lost a direct confrontation with them. small 3rd world nations in a non peaceful region need to have a military. in america we spend less of our gdp on military than most 3rd world countries that are at risk for conflict. as you may know america spends more of its gdp on military than pretty much any other 1st world country by a significant amount. the reality is that we spend too little if we were at risk of an actual war (say if mexico decided to invade us, doesn't have to be a big war). using 1st world countries as a yard stick for how many forces a country should have is how people normally think about the size of military forces, which leads to an assumption of really tiny forces.
Glad you're enjoying it! It's always a big compliment to hear that people are entertained enough to do marathon readings of the series. Hope you continue to enjoy the story as it unfolds!
Whoever is in charge is -truly- incompetent. Somebody's relative? Even in open desert armor needs mech infantry screening. Pure tank units are horribly vulnerable to ambush. Worse, the waster does not even have scouts out. Still, a graduate of the 'My uncle is the president' military school can only be a help to our girl.
Grognard--I think both the helicopters and the tanks were intended to be an "overwhelming" response to eliminate the interloping Super and send a strong warning to any sympathetic Supers who might be tempted to follow suit. That said, I don't think the Darmarian leadership anticipated the amount of resistance facing them and figured sending enough firepower to wipe the entire refugee camp from the face of the world several times over would be sufficient. (But you're right--it is incompetent. Undoubtedly an incompetence bred of overconfidence in one's military might.)
