Posted on 03/27/2015 8:28:53 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
When Lee Kuan Yew died Monday at age 91, the founding father of Singapore did not leave just his legacy as the prime minister whose authoritarian policies shaped a backwater British colony into the world’s fourth-wealthiest nation. He also left Singaporeans with one of the most formidable armies in the world. The tiny island state of 5.4 million, with a land area far smaller than New York City’s, has more fighter jets than Spain, Poland or Sweden. Its army has as many tanks as Italy, which is more than 400 times the size. Its navy boasts the only stealthy ships in the region.
The respected defense publication IHS Jane’s called the Singapore Armed Forces “the best-equipped military in Southeast Asia.”
Singapore spends more on weapons than anybody else near it. Its 2013 defense budget was $12 billion, according to an analysis published in East Asia Forum by Michael Raska, a research fellow at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. That money has bought Singapore advanced American warplanes whose capabilities eclipse anything fielded by other states in the region. For example, it flies the latest version of the F-15, a fighter jet so lethal the U.S. has sold it only to four other nations: Israel, Japan, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.
Singapore’s defense budget dwarfs that of neighboring Indonesia, which spent $7.9 billion that year, but has 250 million people. Malaysia, which lies on Singapore’s other border, spends even less.
Those two neighbors are precisely the reason Lee Kuan Yew decided to spend so much on arms when the nation was established. But the threats facing Singapore in the future may come from further afield, including from China, experts said.
“China’s ‘threat’ lies in its future ability to dominate the South China Sea, exclude the U.S. from the Southeast Asian strategic equation, and then impose its political will on the rest of the region, Singapore included,” said Bernard Loo, associate professor of strategic studies at Nanyang Technological, in an email to IBTimes. But that is not why Singapore is armed so heavily, he added: Malaysia and Indonesia are the real reason.
When Singapore broke off in 1965 from the Federation of Malaya, Lee wanted the new nation to be able to defend itself from its northern neighbor, which later became Malaysia and with which it had until recently a contentious relationship.
“It had to do with Singapore’s utter dependence on Malaysia for sources of potable water,” Loo said. “Malaysian leaders in the past were not averse to threatening to cut off the water supplies to Singapore, if the latter did anything inimicable to Malaysia’s interests.”
As for Indonesia, it’s one of the world’s largest and most populous countries, and Lee feared its sheer size and aggressive “policy of confrontation” in the 1960s. That policy has long ended, but it “continues to worry Singapore’s leaders,” Loo said.
“If the [Singapore Armed Forces] needed to go to war to protect Singapore, the … cause of war would have been the severance of water supplies,” Loo wrote in a blog post citing Lee’s memoirs.
But Singapore is moving toward self-sufficiency in water, and relations with Malaysia and Indonesia are now warm. “Water, in other words, is no longer the casus belli of the hypothetical war that the SAF might need to fight,” Loo wrote.
The strategic focus of the Singapore Armed Forces is shifting, and the reason is found in simple economics: Singapore is a trade hub whose livelihood depends on shipping, and shipping lanes need to be protected from any disruption. The island state has the world’s second-busiest container port, and about one-quarter of world trade passes through the Straits of Malacca, which it shares with Indonesia.
Singapore now needs to “maintain its economic stature, which is dependent on exports, unimpeded trade and communications routes, and reliable external sources for essential supplies such as water, oil, and foodstuffs," Paul Burton, director for Asia-Pacific at the IHS Aerospace Defence and Security consultancy, told CNBC. "The protection of sea lanes and offshore territory is consequently a concern."
That’s why Singapore maintains an air force capable of projecting power far away from the island. Unique among Southeast Asian nations, it has a fleet of air-to-air tankers bought from the U.S., which can extend the range of Singaporean F-15s and F-16s so they can strike thousands of miles away. To do so, they have precision weapons from the U.S. and Israel, including bombs guided by laser and GPS and anti-ship missiles that can hit targets more than 60 miles (100 km) away.
Singapore policymakers do not mention China when discussing their military posture, nor is the government involved in any of the maritime disputes pitting the biggest Asian power against neighbors like Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines. But history shows that Singapore’s tiny size means it cannot wait for any enemy to get close. That lesson came from the island’s capture by Japan during World War II, a traumatic event in Singaporean memory.
"The last thing the Singaporeans want is to fight last-ditch battles on Singaporean soil. A lot of this goes back to the fall of Singapore in 1942,” Richard Bitzinger, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological, told Flight Global magazine.“They never want to have this happen again. They will take the war to the enemy."
Don’t know about the tanks as such but a lot of their air force assets are based/deployed to Australia, France (mainly training) and of course the US. While their navy frequently deploys to Australia and India for training.
http://xbradtc.com/2013/04/09/mountain-home-afb-home-of-the-singapore-air-force/
The reason for this, according to this report, is that everybody is treated equally under the law, and is subject to the same "oppressive" treatment. And I mean everybody. They cited an example from a few years ago from a case where the young adult son of one of the nation's rulers was caught committing some kind of petty/mischief crime (vandalism, maybe).
The guy was subjected to the same punishment that anyone else would have faced.
He was flogged in public.
On national television.
Same here, every time I visit my sis working in HK and on route to the RP. Damn clean (and i thought Seoul had the cleanest city as you will notice people fishing at the public river).
There’s a good reason why Eduardo Saverin (one of the founders of Facebook) settled in Singapore. The tax structure there is business -friendly)
One of the guys I grew up with lives in Singapore. He has lived there for 35 years. When we had our 40th HS Reunion, he entered the U.S. at LAX. He said it was like traveling to a 3rd World country’s airport.
I wish we could flog perps caught spray-painting graffiti over here.
In addition, most people who visit NYC think only of Manhattan or possibly the area between the three major airports and Manhattan with multi-story buildings. Most of Staten Island and the outer boroughs have large tracts of single family homes with nice, albeit not spacious yards.
Only about one third of Singapore's area is densely settled. The remaining two thirds consists of industrial parks, nature preserves, small towns with tract homes and minimal yards and, yes, military bases. It is about a 20 minute train ride and a slightly longer bus ride from downtown Singapore to Johore Baru, the first town across the straight in Malaysia. Most of that trip takes you through relatively sparsely settled areas as described. The locals will even point out the military bases for you if you ask them politely because the chances are pretty good that they've done reserve duty there.
La Guardia is by far the worst of them all, in America, imo.
Interesting. Thanks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world's_busiest_container_ports
Anyway, I woke up the next morning to rooster crowing and looked out the landside of the hotel to typical shantytown just outside the airport.
“Weird Al” Yankovic - Headline News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU95v23MQ4c
I think Rotterdam would be much closer to the top of this list if the container lift count only includes cargo originations and destinations at the port.
If I recall correctly, they built special purpose facilities for refitting American carriers to make up for the loss of Subic Bay Naval Base in the early 90's. That level of commitment to the relationship *without* a formal treaty of alliance is presumably why Lee Kuan Yew always received a warm welcome stateside whenever he showed up.
They've ordered the F-35. With the exception of countries looking for an excuse to cut their defense budgets, countries that have gotten a close look at, and tested the F-35 have loved it. It is truly a revolutionary advance, even relative to the F-15.
I expect if a neighbor invades, Singapore will suddenly increase its land area by an order of magnitude - which isn't difficult given that the country's only a couple of hundred square miles. That will give its tanks something to do.
I lived in Singapore for 4 years. It’s not illegal to chew gum in Singapore. It’s illegal to sell gum. It’s illegal to litter which includes dropping gum anywhere, but in the garbage bin. You can possess gum and chew it all you want.
I am sure you are correct...the tourist guide probably exaggerated a little lol
I was told in Singapore, there are no food stamps and there is no unemployment compensation. I guess they do not need that welfare because of their business friendly government. The unemployment is NEGATIVE 40% or so. Which simply means they have more jobs than citizens. Most menial jobs are done by imported workers on 2 year work visa’s.
United States on the other hand has a wealth re-distributionist president, hell bent on killing small businesses.
They are very proud of their clean sidewalks. I never realized how much gum was on the sidewalks of big cities until after I lived in Singapore. When you go to any big city in the States or Europe after being there you are disgusted by the gum and trash you see.
There is a lot other countries can learn from Singapore.
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