Quora Answer: Would Singapore's Military be Able to Defend Singapore from Invasion?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Would Singapore’s military be able to defend Singapore from invasion?”

Singapore is one of the most militarised states in the world.  It also has geographic barriers surrounding it.  All sea lanes approaching Singapore have natural choke points.  The only land approach is the Causeway from Peninsula Malaysia.  It is an island, surrounded by other islands, and a single peninsula leading to the continental mainland.

The vulnerability of any territory to military invasion is also relative to potential belligerents.  In the case of Singapore, there are no major powers that would threaten it due to political self-interest on their part.  Singapore is useful as an independent finance centre, a neutral city state far away from theatres of conflict.  No matter who goes to war, their leadership still needs a place to conduct diplomacy and to keep their money.  Singapore is one of the few places suitable for this.  Nobody is going to nuke their money.

Within the context of Southeast Asia, Singapore is fortunate to be in a relatively stable growth region, a strategic neighbourhood.  The city state is an integral part of the regional political power structure, through ASEAN and other supranational organisations.  Its diplomacy, the first line of defence, has ensured that it is not in the interest of any coalition of regional rivals to go to war.  Singapore has close military ties with Thailand, and an excellent relationship with the Indonesian military leadership.

Being the wealthiest state in the region by many orders of magnitude, Singapore is very influential.  Money buys influence.  Singapore has enough to spare.  Money also means an outsized defence budget. Singapore’s defence budget, in real terms, is more than any two members of ASEAN combined.  In defence budget per soldier, Singapore spends almost S$1,500 per soldier, in contrast to Malaysia’s S$400 per soldier.  This means the quality of gear is vastly different.  Singapore has the largest, most modern air force and navy.  It has a technology edge.  It can be credibly argued that there is nothing defensive about the SAF, since it is one of the few nations in the world that retains the right to pre-emptively strike.  Other infamous examples are the US and Israel.  Not even Russia and China have that as an adopted military doctrine.