Have you ever wondered how  powerful is the Singaporean Army?  

despite its tiny geographical size,  Singapore’s effort in enhancing its  

defense industry has made it possible for them to  become Southeast Asia’s most advanced military.  

But how did they manage to reach this position? Hi everyone. Welcome back to Military TV.  

In today’s episode, we are going to  take a look at Singaporean military  

industry. For more interesting insights,  don’t go anywhere and stay tuned. 

While it is evident that Singapore's Air Force  is capable of substantial air-to-air combat,  

its main duty goes beyond protecting the national  boundaries, as they also work to secure regional  

interests. Despite its small size, Singapore  spent a lot of money on modernizing its defense  

equipment, demonstrating that it is capable of  having the latest state-of-the-art technology  

for its military. According globalfirepower,  Singapore ranked 40 out of 140 countries in  

terms of military strength report in 2021. Looking back through historical record,  

after successfully gaining independence in  1965, the newly-born city-state didn’t have  

a well-founded standing military to support the  nation completely, as its military comprised of  

only two infantry regiments under the command  of British officers and made up of mostly  

non-Singaporean residents. When Britain left  the country in October 1971, Singapore was left  

with only small amount of British, Australian and  New Zealand forces as a token military presence.  

Following the complete pull out of New Zealand  troops by 1989, Singaporean officials realized  

that they are in dire need of bigger, capable yet  economically unexpensive military force to defend  

itself as the surrounding countries  were undoubtedly mightier in size. 

At this very time, Singapore built a  rather covert relations with Israel,  

which later dispatched its military advisers  to help Singapore establish a robust defence  

force fashioned partly after the Israel Defence  Forces (IDF). Singaporean military were also  

taught different warfare techniques to equip  them with the skills in combat conflict in  

the jungle areas of its neighbouring nations,  should events like those happen in the future.  

The country’s army subsequently get  their hands on battle tanks from Israel,  

acquiring the important combat machinery  before neighbouring Malaysia obtained theirs. 

In present time, Singapore's immense wealth  enables it to buy and manufacture the best  

equipment available, as well as integrate  cutting-edge technology equipment into its  

military forces. One thing to point out, however,  is that most of their advanced military equipment  

were purchased from other countries, especially  the United States. Singaporean’s strongest arms of  

its military is the republic’s Air Force, with the  backbone of Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF)  

is a fleet of stealthy F-15 and F-16 fighters.  The RSAF is known to have acquired forty F-15SG  

Eagles, forty F-16Ds, and twenty F-16Cs. These  powerful fleet is complemented with approximately  

thirty F-5S Tiger II and several A-4 Skyhawks in  inventory. What’s more, Singapore also fields five  

Israeli modified Gulfstream 550 jets with Airborne  Warning and Control System (AWACS) capability. 

The F-15SG, which is a derivative of the F-15E, is  without a doubt Singapore's most capable fighter.  

The APG-63(V)3 Active Electronically Scanned  Array (AESA) radar, which is one of the best  

aircraft mounted radars on any fighter in the  region, is the F-15SG's most crucial advantage.  

Due to their electronic nature, AESAs can also  undertake electronic warfare activities, such as  

actively degrading the lock of an active radar  guided missile while scanning at the same time.  

The F-16s of the Royal South African Air  Force are also said to be getting AESAs. 

Singapore, unlike its neighbours, has  gone "all in" on Western technology.  

Resupply and maintenance are likely to be  easy due to their aircraft's common origins.  

This trend appears to be continuing, with  Singapore considering the F-35 as a replacement  

for its F-5Es. They also have AWACS planes, which  is a huge edge over their two closest neighbours. 

That’s all for today! Thank you for  watching and see you in the next episode.