'Little red dot' Singapore now an int'l military player

'Little red dot' Singapore now an int'l military player

Roberto Coloma, Agence France-Presse/Singapore

From tsunami-hit Aceh to hurricane-battered New Orleans,
Singapore's role in international relief efforts has thrown the
spotlight on the city-state's rise as a Southeast Asian military
power.

Thanks to billions of dollars in defense spending powered by
explosive economic growth, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) has
left its neighbors behind in terms of sheer firepower, although
it has yet to be tested in combat.

"The SAF lacks operational experience no doubt, but in terms
of its training, its military hardware, and its doctrines, it is
certainly the most developed and mature conventional military
force in Southeast Asia," said Assistant Professor Bernard Loo, a
military analyst in Singapore.

Singapore's new arms orders will further reinforce its
position.

The ministry of defense has announced that it is negotiating
with Boeing to buy a squadron of F-15 Eagle fighters, just two
months after taking delivery of the first of six "stealth"
frigates from French contractor DCN.

The fighter and frigate deals are estimated to be worth US$1
billion each. The F-15 will replace an older generation of
fighters and join F-16s already in Singapore's arsenal.

Singapore has been spending around 6 percent of gross domestic
product -- its total economic output -- annually on defense, a
legacy of its vulnerable early days as a republic.

In the fiscal year to March 2006, its defense budget is 9.26
billion Singapore dollars (US$5.5 billion), up 7.4 percent from a
year ago and accounting for almost a third of the national
budget.

The island once contemptuously dismissed by former Indonesian
president B.J. Habibie as a "little red dot" on the map came to
its giant neighbor's aid last December when a tsunami struck Aceh
province, leaving some 131,000 people dead.

The SAF's C130 transport aircraft, heavy naval vessels and
Super Puma and Chinook helicopters threw a lifeline to Aceh's
survivors in the crucial days before a massive global relief
effort could be launched.

The role was repeated on a smaller scale when Singapore's
Texas-based Chinook helicopters helped in the post-hurricane
relief efforts in New Orleans.

While untested in combat, analysts say the SAF has become a
formidable force thanks to compulsory military service, in
addition to the hardware.

Robert Karniol, Asia-Pacific editor of the military affairs
journal Jane's Defense Weekly, said only Vietnam among the
Southeast Asian nations could possibly be a military match for
Singapore.

"In terms of a standing army and combat capability, the
Vietnamese armed forces have an awful lot of combat experience
which the Singaporeans don't," he said. "The Singaporeans have
proven to be capable when called upon, but they've never been
able to do anything as complex as the Vietnamese have."

Before building up its firepower to current levels, Singapore
used to follow a "poisoned shrimp" doctrine, he said.

"We're small but if you try to eat us, you will get very
sick," Karniol said, summing up the philosophy.

"But it's not a relevant policy anymore because the SAF have
become increasingly more powerful and their primary function as
with any military force is to deter attack and if attacked to
defeat an attack."

The SAF was a puny force in the early years after Singapore
was ejected from the Malaysian federation in 1965 and its
survival as a republic was in doubt.

When other countries refused to help, Israel sent military
advisers but they were officially disguised as Mexicans to avoid
offending Singapore's Muslim neighbors.

"They looked swarthy enough," independence leader Lee Kuan Yew
wrote in his memoirs.

Abdul Razak Baginda, executive director of the Malaysian
Strategic Research Centre, maintained that Singapore still has an
"Israeli siege mentality".

"That mentality is I think embedded in the psyche of the
Singapore leadership, the Singapore people and the military," he
said. "Singapore is surrounded by the Malay world."

But others point out that instead of a hardline stance,
Singapore has opted for what Karniol called "defense diplomacy"
to enhance its security.

"It effectively involves using your armed forces as one of
your tools of diplomacy. It's an established function for armed
forces, except that the Singaporeans are much better at it."

Singaporean analyst Loo of the Nanyang Technological
University said the city-state "has always maintained that it
sees no direct military threats coming from the region of
Southeast Asia".

"Its deterrent posture is one of general deterrence, derived
from the basic assumption that international politics is one of
self-help, and if ever a direct military threat arose, the
country would then need a strong, well-trained SAF that can deter
a more immediate military threat."