# Singapore's Light aircraft carrier/LHD project



## CougarKing (1 Mar 2014)

If they start building it and complete it, this city-state will be the 2nd nation in Southeast Asia, aside from Thailand, that has a light carrier. (Model mockup of _Endurance-160_ carrier concept at the link below)



> from Defense News:
> 
> *Is a Light Carrier in Singapore's Future?*
> 
> ...


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## Edward Campbell (1 Mar 2014)

Singapore lives in a rough neighbourhood. It has few real friends, none that are not, in some way or another, friendly with their enemies somewhat hostile neighbours, too.

Singapore, as a mater of general principle, trusts no one. Singaporeans do not believe that anyone will will pay a major strategic _price_ to support them.

Singapore also accepts a significant share of responsibility for the _freedom_ of the Malacca Straits, sovereignty over which it shares (and contests) with Indonesia and Malaysia. This, routinely, puts the Singaporeans into direct conflict with Chinese, Indonesian and Malaysian pirates and, now and again, with military forces of those nations that are operating on a _rogue_ basis. Singapore considers international trade necessary to the health of its economy and sees any threat to the flow of trade through the region as a direct threat to its well-being as a state. Singapore is also concerned that its continued support of Western nations, particularly the United States, has made it a target for groups like or linked to Al Qaeda. These fears have led top Singapore officials to draw a connection between terrorism and piracy, even going so far as to refer to the acts of piracy in the region as "terrorism camouflaged as piracy." It has also led Singapore, despite its small size and geographic position to join e.g. the US led anti-piracy operations in the Arabian Sea. Singapore believes that it must "lead by example" and then hope that other nations will follow its lead in Malacca/Singapore Straits region.

Singapore has nearly 30,000 regulars and 40,000 conscripts on full time service and nearly 1 million of its 5.5 million people are in the reserve force. Singapore spends somewhere between 3.6% (SIPRI) and 6% (Singapore Annual Stats for 2011) of GDP on defence, a greater share than does the almost any _Western_ nation except Israel. Defence accounts for about 24% of the Government of Singapore's spending. Compare that with Canada which spends somewhere between 1.1% and 1.5% of GDP on defence, which is, maybe, 8% of total government spending.

A LPH is, certainly, within Singapore's financial _means_ and it might be a welcome addition to its capabilities.


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