The Republic of Singapore has set aside a record S$12.3 billion for the Ministry of Defence/Singapore Armed Forces, according to the Budget Statement released this afternoon.
Defence spending for the 2013 financial year, which starts on 1 April, rose some 4.2 per cent compared to the S$11.8 billion budgeted for FY2012.
MINDEF's war chest of S$12,335 million comprises S$11,895 million for operating expenditure and S$440 million for development expenditure.
The Ministry of Home Affairs is due to receive S$3.9 billion, up 11.4 per cent from last year's S$3.5 billion.
For more Singapore Budget FY 2013 highlights, click here
US$1 = S$1.24
hooray. no need to buy stupid BMW's anymore for the paper (pappie) generals. Maserati....here I CUM :-)
ReplyDeletebe wary of the term "defense".
ReplyDeletetheir toys may be used against domestic civilians
this means the 3rd installation of jack neo's movie "ah boys to men" will have even more action scences !
ReplyDeleteAny guesses what the next big ticket item or items are?
ReplyDeleteNavy got their stealth frigates and ordered 12 new PVs to be built by ST Engg, Army got MLRS... maybe Air Force get new toy like a big UAV like Global Hawk (but I hear they don't want to sell to S. Korea, much less to us) or refurbished P-3C (if we can't get P-8)?
Will the new budget include the soon-to-be announced Iron Dome or are those batteries already paid for?
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.
ReplyDeleteMartin Luther King, Jr.
Why we pay UN for much every year? UN will protect Singapore in the event of war. UN will send peacekeeping force to fight for Singapore. So why Singapore need army for?
ReplyDeleteS.Korea is cleared by the US govt to receive Global Hawks but the quoted price for the Global Hawks is astronomical! So much so that Seoul is now having second thoughts of procuring them and therefore got nothing to do with "...they [US] don't want to sell to S. Korea.."
ReplyDeleteRefurbished P-3s are no longer in our cards, could be another platfom.
As for the UN, just b'cos a member pay fees to UN and UN is obliged to defend S'pore? REALLY?? You know that NK and Iran are both in the UN? And if they attack us, who you think UN will 'defend'? For you to have such thoughts, I can only advise you 'Get Real and Grow Up'.
With the Euro and US currencies so weak against the Singapore dollar, and with most of the sophisticated platforms traded in those currencies, the SAF can literally get a lot more bang for its buck in the current economic climate. Furthermore, doing so now, and not waiting till there's an immediate need, allows a degree of future proofing, especially since platforms usually take several years, if not a decade or longer, to become fully operational.
ReplyDeleteSo, spending more now does make fiscal sense. I think investment gurus often say it's not always wise to follow the crowd of buying when everyone's buying, or in this case, cutting back, when everyone else is.
Unfortunately, in light of other non-military concerns, spending more now doesn't make good sense at all.
That's the nub of the matter - selling your business strategy to shareholders who may not fully understand the motivation behind it. Yet they call the shots because they vote.
What complicates this whole negotiation is it's impossible to set limits on what's an appropriate level of defence spending. It's like insurance - how much is enough?
Guess it comes down to how humji you are. In this case, the gov't has always been damn humji and kiasi. Whereas increasingly, maybe used to living comfortable, the public is starting to be less risk-adverse. What could possibly happen, they ask?
Who's right and who's wrong? I don't know.
What I do know is many people are just focusing on the numbers, and not the underlying assumptions which drive them, which are largely shaped by the intangibles of culture, psychology and even personality.
And this extends to many other sources of tension between the government and the people.
The above pretends to be clever but is an idiot.
ReplyDelete"With the Euro and US currencies so weak against the Singapore dollar, and with most of the sophisticated platforms traded in those currencies, the SAF can literally get a lot more bang for its buck. So, spending more now does make fiscal sense."
The Goveernment can just convert its money into the Euro and US Dollar, hold and spend when the need arises. Untold billions of foreign reserves are in foreign currency. Not as if you must spend today if you convert today.
Singaporeans made choices, they should live with the consequences.
ReplyDeleteThis is fair. :)
"The Goveernment can just convert its money into the Euro and US Dollar, hold and spend when the need arises. Untold billions of foreign reserves are in foreign currency. Not as if you must spend today if you convert today"
ReplyDeleteSure, assuming this is as straight-forward as you make it out to be.
But Singapore will lose the bargaining advantage it has now when it's a buyer's market. Who knows what sweet deals the manufacturers are offering now. Again, more bang for your buck.
Wow, if we keep in increasing our def budget, our orbat will be more than some European countries. I think we have more F-16s (and more advanced versions) than, say Norway or Denmark. I don't disagree with outspending potential opponents in order to be armed to the teeth, but the pace of change in military terms is so fast (and future so hard to predict), it is very hard to predict some weapon we spend millions of $$ won't be obsolete tomorrow.
ReplyDeletei agree we don't always have to buy top of the line weapon systems. i think the SAF knows this. Advocating "good enough" and serve our defence strategic objective which we can operationalised these systems.
ReplyDeleteAnother point to take note of is critical mass. Too little of the best weapon system render the whole ineffective. As they say, "quantity has a quality of its own".
Also helps to bear in mind that many decades-old platforms can no longer be cost-effectively upgraded. So it could be a matter of timing. The time to buy again is now. Although Singapore has saved a lot through upgrades over the years, this can no longer be done.
ReplyDeletePerhaps that's also proof that weapons don't become obsolete overnight.
Singapore actually isn't averse to being more transparent in arms acquisitions. DPM Teo urged the region to be so in 2009. He even laid out a framework for this at the Shangri-la Dialogue. But other ASEAN states were silent on this. And I don't think it's prudent for Singapore to show hand first, right?
Nowadays with the internet and social media, it is hard to hide defence purchase of big ticket bell and whistler systems. Being transparent with weapon systems is also a form of deterrence defence. Also there is the element of confusion in the thousands of cacophony in milblogs, milforums, etc. but which is real and which is release deliberately to obfuscate? i think the most classified stuff are actually the "source code" and crypto. Real espionage knows what they want (aka the recent spade of cyber attacks witness with certain global power players). They already know what equipment and systems we have but not the operational "black box". That is the "holy grail" to foreign agents. i too am concern about new citizens serving in our SAF especially those very educated ones... i give the benefit of the doubt that SAF knows what they are doing.
ReplyDeleteFebruary 26, 2013 at 9:22 PM
ReplyDeleteHopefully you are not referring to Singapore in your comment. If so, you obviously did not read the budget statement.
Security and External Relations: $15.7B
Social Development: $22.4B
@10:28: as with most netizens, they don't actually bother to read the source material. It's jump on the band wagon, throw some fuel on the fire, and then move swiftly on to the next rant...
ReplyDeleteNot going to contest the raw figures. We know how little this "Social Development" budget item actually benefits the man in the street.
ReplyDeleteOr better yet, how much the government takes back through lease of land, tax and ownership of SMRT.
New big ticket item is f35.
ReplyDeleteGenerals can get more budget, spend more and support industry.
Yippee!
Just imagine... someone attack you...hmm...are you going to wait for somebody else to come rescue you or self defense first? Realising help will eventually arrive later.. .
ReplyDelete