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Eye on China, Singapore splurges on top-line arms
Last month, the wealthy city-state passed its biggest ever defense budget worth US$16.7 billion, or around 30% of the government’s total planned expenditure for 2019, with rich earmarks for defense, security and related diplomacy. Singapore allocates between 3% and 5% of its gross domestic product on defense, well above the global average, while most regional states spend closer to 1-2% or lower, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute data.
The Singapore Navy, which operates within the region’s crowded littoral waters, will also acquire new advanced submarines. Last month, Ng visited Germany to unveil a new state-of-the-art type-218SG submarine, known as the “Invincible” and developed by ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), a German builder of surface ships and submarines.
The 70-meter diesel-electric submarine, which has been constructed but is not yet operational, is the biggest ever built by TKMS, and will not be sold to any other country. Singapore will take delivery of a further three Invincible-class vessels from 2022. The acquisition has put a spotlight on the city-state’s ongoing efforts to boost its undersea capabilities amid rising regional maritime security challenges and bubbling territorial disputes in the nearby South China Sea.
Singapore has joined the fray with what is believed to be the most sophisticated submarine in Southeast Asia custom-built for warmer Pacific waters.
Sébastien Roblin, an expert in security and conflict resolution, wrote in a recent article that Singapore’s new Invincible-class submarine’s surveillance capabilities and endurance advantages – it can remain submerged for four to six weeks before needing to surface – would add new factors to the contest for influence and control over the South China Sea.
“The Type 218’s advanced sensors and facilities will give Singapore significant intelligence-gathering capabilities, particularly for intercepting signals, deploying operatives, tracking the movements of Chinese diesel-electric submarines around the strait and building a ‘threat library’ on their acoustic signatures,” he wrote in reference to the nearby Strait of Malacca.
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/03/article/eye-on-china-singapore-splurges-on-top-line-arms
Last month, the wealthy city-state passed its biggest ever defense budget worth US$16.7 billion, or around 30% of the government’s total planned expenditure for 2019, with rich earmarks for defense, security and related diplomacy. Singapore allocates between 3% and 5% of its gross domestic product on defense, well above the global average, while most regional states spend closer to 1-2% or lower, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute data.
The Singapore Navy, which operates within the region’s crowded littoral waters, will also acquire new advanced submarines. Last month, Ng visited Germany to unveil a new state-of-the-art type-218SG submarine, known as the “Invincible” and developed by ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), a German builder of surface ships and submarines.
The 70-meter diesel-electric submarine, which has been constructed but is not yet operational, is the biggest ever built by TKMS, and will not be sold to any other country. Singapore will take delivery of a further three Invincible-class vessels from 2022. The acquisition has put a spotlight on the city-state’s ongoing efforts to boost its undersea capabilities amid rising regional maritime security challenges and bubbling territorial disputes in the nearby South China Sea.
Singapore has joined the fray with what is believed to be the most sophisticated submarine in Southeast Asia custom-built for warmer Pacific waters.
Sébastien Roblin, an expert in security and conflict resolution, wrote in a recent article that Singapore’s new Invincible-class submarine’s surveillance capabilities and endurance advantages – it can remain submerged for four to six weeks before needing to surface – would add new factors to the contest for influence and control over the South China Sea.
“The Type 218’s advanced sensors and facilities will give Singapore significant intelligence-gathering capabilities, particularly for intercepting signals, deploying operatives, tracking the movements of Chinese diesel-electric submarines around the strait and building a ‘threat library’ on their acoustic signatures,” he wrote in reference to the nearby Strait of Malacca.
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/03/article/eye-on-china-singapore-splurges-on-top-line-arms
