Singapore Militarily

I had previously noted that the third most popular post on this blog, as of this writing, is "Singapore's Aircraft Carrier Ambition"... and that is an understandable hazard with mandatory National Service -- we all think we are armchair Generals.

So this blogpost is for the armchair generals (you know who you are!)

First a video:

The video describes how Singapore's military strategy evolved from "Poison Shrimp" to "Porcupine" and then to "Dolphin". It also covers how the Israelis helped Singapore set up our Military, and the nature of their help. 

Singapore's Global City Strategy - From SG History Unauthorised.

From SG History: Rajaratnam's vision of Singapore as a Global City

From the IPS Singapore Perspective 2022 video:

How did Singapore, the "Accidental Country" become the Nation that it is today?

Police Shootings (Singapore)

For some strange reasons, or perhaps no reason at all, just coincidence, or perhaps for reasons beyond human comprehension, in the last few months, there have been a spate of incidents involving men armed with knives, and in one case a sword.

In at least two cases, the police were present and tried to de-escalate the situation, but had to shoot the armed man. In the case of 17 Feb, the man with the knife charged at policemen at the Clementi Neighbourhood Police Centre. The police at the scene shot the man.

He was hit in the arm, and survived.

The Russo-Ukraine War and the (Cautionary) Lessons for China

This video below is a panel discussion on how China is reacting to and learning from the Russo-Ukraine War.

The video starts with the question: Is China ok with this war?

One naive view is that they are. That China has Russia's back, and this is fine with China. 

Be reasonable.

[This post has been "rescued" from a 2010 Facebook post.]


You may have heard this saying: The reasonable person adapts to circumstances and the environment. The unreasonable person expects circumstances and the environment to adapt to them. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable person.

Seeing as how Singapore has progressed quite a bit since independence, can we then conclude that Singaporeans are probably a bunch of unreasonable people?

I mean the national pastime of complaining is a sign of this unreasonableness isn't it?

But wait. The one thing Singaporeans complain about the most? The Government. The PAP. 

The Empire Strikes Back (Or PAP refers Pritam to the Public Prosecutor)

If WP taking Aljunied GRC, then Sengkang GRC was "A New Hope", this could be when the PAP strikes back. (For background, click on this link.)

The Committee of Privileges (COP) had completed its inquiry and recommended that Raeesah Khan be fined, and two of the WP leaders, Pritam Singh and Faisal Manap be referred to the Public Prosecutor for investigation as to possible perjury and contempt of Parliament. And Parliament has voted to accept the recommendations of the COP. 

However, "the report did not recommend any action towards WP chairman Sylvia Lim, in view of her voluntary assistance to the committee." 

Sylvia Lim took exception to this characterisation of her and spoke in clarification:

Basically she argued that she did not contradict Pritam's testimony, but had corroborated it (like a good team player). 

What would Singapore use an Aircraft Carrier for?

The third most popular post on this blog, as of this writing, is "Singapore's Aircraft Carrier Ambition".

I did not know there were so many armchair generals/admirals in SG... But I guess that is a understandable hazard with mandatory National Service.

So in that vein, here's my take on why Singapore might need or use an Aircraft Carrier if we were to get one.

But before we look at what we would use it (or them) for, we should determine what sort of carrier it might be. This video on Japan's Izumo-class "Helicopter Destroyer", provides a broad categorisation of different classes of carriers. [From 0:35 in the video].