Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Air Force Envy

The Ministry of Defence initiated LALEE (Low Altitude Long Enduring Endurance) research in 1998 to replace the E-2C Hawkeye early warning aircraft, among other purposes (presumably military ones).

"We will have to look at replacing the E-2C, which has been with us for 14 years. I think the time has come," said Maj Gen Lim in 2004. One option was a system like the LALEE, studied for 3 years by a team under a Prof Lui. The unmanned air vehicle (UAV) was described by Lui as "an integrated airborne surveillance and communications system to provide continuous temporal and very large spatial coverage". The good news to taxpayers was that it would "provide a task group operating in the littorals (coastal region) with continuous surveillance from the air at a cost considerably cheaper than operating current-generation surveillance and communications platforms". During the 21 April 2004 presentation to the Unmanned Vehicles Asia Pacific conference in Sydney, Maj Alfred Fox, then director of Mindef's newly established future systems directorate, displayed images of a single fuselage air vehicle with a large, underslung phased-array radar (Flight International, May 2004).

According to Associate Professor Tan of International Studies, University of New South Wales, Australia, Singapore already operates a comparatively large UAV fleet, consisting of about forty Hermes 450 and Searcher UAVs. On top of this, it also acquired four advanced surveillance platforms comprising Gulfstream 550 jets equipped with the Elta conformal EW system which went into service in Israel in 2008 ("East Asia's Military Transformation: The Revolution in Military Affairs and its Problems", Security Challenges, Vol.7, No.3, Spring 2011).

When the four Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeye aircraft were first delivered from 1985-6, our neigbours were not too happy with the intrusive spy in the sky. Goh Chok Tong made more people unhappy when he said the cost of each plane was "only" equivalent to a plate of char kway teow for every man, woman and child in Singapore. This had to be a precursor of the "$600,000 is peanuts" remark made by Mrs Goh during the NKF saga. The Aviation Research Group says the price for one Gulfstream G550 starts at US$59.9 million.

Singapore's defence ministry confirmed the purchase of the four Gulfstream luxury business jets in 2007. DPM Teo Chee Hean, the big spender, proudly announced their operational status in April 2012. The G550 can fly faster, higher, longer and see farther than the E-2C Hawkeye which it replaces. A quick look at the Gulfstream brochure also shows that the configuration can be easily tweaked to rival the accouterments onboard America's Air Force One. Poor Obama, and he thought he had one up over the highest paid political leader in the world.
Highly customisable layout options for the Elites

31 comments:

  1. They now have their exit planes. Do you have yours?

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  2. what is the point of your article?

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    1. Read his previous article in March: "Do We Need a US$68,000,000 Airplane".

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  3. So much for lesser perks eh?

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  4. I think it is cheaper to send a satelite up in space to monitor aircraft movements. At least we will save on fuel and manpower. By the way, is anybody actually check on Mindef on its expanditure? Spending 1/4 of GDP is no small matter! This money are our blood and sweat.

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    1. Our neighbours do not need expensive toys to win a war, just create lots of haze.

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    2. Not !/4 of GDP but that of total budget of about $48B . Ng Eng Hen says it is money well spent- the defence budget of $12.4B

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  5. Considering that all airplanes can be configured to luxurious fittings other than purpose built freighters.


    your insinuation is very cynical considering you do not have any evidence.

    Further, having seen the ministers fly commercial albeit better than economy. Would opine, you are veering very close to thin ice in cynicism/conspiracy theories.

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    1. Right, all airplanes can be configured to luxurious fittings , like the SIA plane that was converted in a hurry into a flying hospital for a VVIP.

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    2. Anon

      What a laugh!! Ha ha. Guess a little green around the gills and medulla oblangata.
      Unlike others, the VVIP actuallys pays up for the costs out of pocket.

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    3. Really? So how much is the costs out of his pocket exactly? Nobody seems to know where the secret bill has been hidden. Assuming a 747 Boeing with what - 30 first class seats - (2 1st class customers were bumped off that flight) so 30x 2 round trip x $8000 = approx $480k +/- not including those personalized nurses and doctors on board. So it must have come to easily a million I would guess..or is it $8 like the heart by-pass that Khaw has? Pray tell..in the name of transparency. Coz next time, I might just be able to know I have such an option if I ever need one myself.

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    4. Woah Conspiracy theories abound! smile

      There is such a thing called travel insurance as well the fact why 30 seats, I doubt that many (just look at Singapore airlines website) and considering at that time fuel costs are low, it does make sense to use today's prices.

      But what the heck, have fun stewing over it

      I will chill out

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    5. Correction, it does not make sense to use today's prices.
      You can look up the Hansard and do your own homework

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  6. The newest radar systems and/plus alternative detection systems would cost a fraction to buy and operate (compared to buying and operating these aircraft).

    How big is our airspace?

    It is just an excuse to waste money.

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    1. A radar system cannot justify all the paper generals, admirals and etc.

      Generals need to have army men reporting to them. Otherwise, cannot justify position.

      And then the talent will have to be released for use by the Opposition parties.

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  7. From what I know, it is cheaper and also technlogically viable and better to operate the Gulf streams rather than continue with the Hawkeyes. There are stuff that most of us do not know about the capabilities of the new equipment and also those of future evaluations. Defense spending cannot be quantified.

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  8. the motto of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) has always been - on constant vigilance against all eventualities.

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    1. Yaah, that was correct when Singapore was made up mainly of Singaporeans. Now, half are none citizens.

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  9. Really can't understand why we need to have so many unmanned spy planes. What kind of war are we planning for? Who are our enemies?

    To me, my greatest enemy is MIW!

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    1. The enemies are in the head of one man. It's called a phony war. The last time a shot was fired in anger was half a century ago - and we have since squandered a fortune in defence expenditures.

      The real war is now being fought in our heartland against a tide of foreign invasion - human and microscopic.

      You can have all the fancy military toys our money can buy, but if a fight actually starts are our paper generals up to the mark? Many are just marking time to be re-posted to politics or the GLCs to earn big bucks.

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  10. There is no doubt the RSAF is a big spender of taxpayer money. They only buy and operate 'branded' US-made planes except when the planes belong to the Navy, like the Fokker. RSAF is a fine example of the PAP government's elitist model. Their tagline - "Above All" said it all.

    It is however, far-fetch to suggest the Gulfstream can easily be tweaked for non- operational purpose. If that is the case, four Gulfstreams are hardly enough, considering the number of elites who would want to enjoy such privilege, if available.

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  11. Well the army needs a make-believe-enemy to justify its spending. Who can say they are wrong? After all, they are the expert themselves whether real or otherwise.

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  12. I would like to ask DPM Tharman how many plates of char kway teow would it have cost the bottom 10% of our poor here to support the rich Europeans by pledging US$4b to the IMF war chest for some bogus aid?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llDYLb7HoIk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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  13. //Poor Obama, and he thought he had one up over the highest paid political leader in the world. //

    LOL..even ex SMRT CEO Ms Saw earned 3x more than Obama. Look what pride she has done to our world class transport?

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  14. The gulfstream is a safer option for the father and son to exit quickly. It is nimble, can fly high and fast, more importantly, serve as super long range eyes for the F35s, F16s acting as escorts.
    They must have done their evaluations and realised it will be a folly to rely on SQ pilots,
    whereby sentiments suggest the familee will never reach their intended destination...

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  15. Just cant help feeling that Sg is aredi
    invaded and occupied by aliens.
    Or
    am I just over imaginative?

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  16. Wow..can convert into air "ambulance" to transport our elites back comfortably in time of emergency. SIA is not good enough liao

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  17. huh...this is in addition to the secret "ark" on top of MBS

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  18. Waste of money. We are supposed to save in time of uncertainty yet Mindef are spending more. No logic!

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  19. Yeah, seems more like for easy escape route for PAPpy elites rather than defense. They also need to set aside budget to bribe the pilots in case the pilots refuse to fly or fly them back to face judgement.

    Otherwise spend so much for fuck? Within the next 30 years, S'pore will be part of M'sia --- something like HK special economic zone is part of China now.

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  20. The defence spending in a lot of countries is most likely the easiest to cheat. First there is nothing like a competitive market price for anyone to check.

    Just charge anything just like the rare diamonds that some PM's wife fancies and Defence Contractors are certainly more than happy to oblige.

    Just remember to instruct them to be discreet for a win-win deal. Is there any chance that this may be the underlying reason for our Defence Budget to keep rising even when we have never fought any wars ?

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