sundaymorningstaple wrote:Sounds like somebody hasn't done his NS yet. A flag rank officers is one who has been promoted to a rank higher than Colonel. You must be one of the momma's boy's who has spend his whole life in the educational system so doesn't know what he's really talking about yet. The fact that your view of things are rather myopic (which considering fully 80% of Singaporeans are.....) might explain why the generic world wide term (which was initially a US term) Flag Rank is beyond your comprehension.
You really need to talk to people and widen your knowledge a bit. It's nice to feel your military is so good, and for sure, Singapore needs people like you to have faith in what they are doing. But it is truly myopic if you think your military could withstand an onslaught of several million even with the technology. Singapore's military has never claimed it could win a war, but has always wanted a military deterrent. That it does have, but a determined aggressor, not worried about the initial losses, would wear down the country's defenses in a matter of weeks as all it has to do it blockade it from receiving foodstuffs. With little natural resources of it's own, it would soon wither. That is, if there are enough soldiers who didn't run away first. Aside from the Naval Diving Unit and the Commando's here, I sure wouldn't put all my stock in the level of military expertise here. For the record, at full call-up Singapore only has around 350K available conscripts of which 200K of them spend most of the time trying to get deferments from doing their annual training. At least a third of them fail their physical fitness assessments when they do go. Jets sitting in an Arizona desert aren't going to help too much are they. You "firepower" is nothing if there aren't any personnel to push the buttons. You really need to do some more studying before you stick your foot even further in it.
There are no armed forces of "several million" in this region. Indonesia, the biggest country around here, only has a 500k mililtary. Counting might be hard after your lobotomy but try to picture the numbers anyway.
If you call Singapore's Armed forces poorly trained and prepared, you should take a look around Singapore.
The Singapore army has 200 main battle tanks, 400 light tanks, 1000 Armoured Personnel Carriers, 1000 Mechanised Infantry Combat Vehicles like the Bionix 2, 400K military trained men who have undergone 2 years full time military training and yearly reservist call ups.
The Australian army only has around 50k men, including reservists. Vis a vis Singapore's 400k, of which 100k or so are regulars.
The Sg air force has 200 fighter jets or so with a backbone of 100 F15s,F16s. Unlike what you think, many of them are based in Singapore. Those that are based overseas have conformal tanks and can easily fly back within 6hours and refuel at Singaporean bases in Thailand, Aus etc.
The Australian air force only has 80 or 100 fighter jets with a backbone of F18s, which will lose to the F15/16s in a dog fight.
You have to be a complete Woodbridge resident to think that the Singapore military can be wiped out in 3 days. Even with a complete blockade, Singapore has enough food and water to run for a few months. No military in the area has the capability to block Singapore's waters and air, the Singapore Navy and Air Force is just that superior. But in the event of a war, Singapore will definitely be pouring out her tanks and men into enemy soil and raiding their food.
Singapore is the only country in the region that has the engineering capability to repair and create tanks/airplanes. This will come in useful in times fo war. The other countries do not have the engineering capability to repair heavily damaged planes/tanks because they simply do not have the technology.
Singapore manufacured the SAR 21 rifle, which we sold to the Indonesians + Bionix 2 armoured vehicles + Skyhawk fighter jets etc. Flats have a bomb shelter built in as well. All these are the result of 3 decades of heavy spending on defence.
Singapore is very humble. It does not boast about its capabilities but the SAF is by far the most powerful military in the region. Australia's military has only 50% or less of Singapore's capabilities. Indonesia and Malaysia have at most 50-60% of Singapore's capabilities.
Anyone foolish enough to attack Singapore will soon find their country overrun by Singaporean soldiers.
You need to take your bipolar meds before logging onto the internet. It does takes a complete nutcase to claim that an armed forces which is the 30th largest in the world, composed of
200 of the most advanced fighter jets, apache longbow attack helicopters, 400k men, 2000 armoured vehicles and 600 tanks can only last for 3 days.
Sgporean in France for one year master degree. Back to Spore by 2011!