Singapore to acquire Leopard 2A4s

[Waylander]

One always have to remember that Singapore fully depends on its conscription system while Australia and NZ are fully professionals.

IMHO you just cannot send your conscripts onto oversea missions. I have no problem with a conscription system as long as the draftees are purely meant for home defense tasks.
Forcing your male children to serve and then send them onto some oversea missions is just wrong. Especially when you consider the doubtfull results and background of many UN missions all around the world.

And unlike bigger countries like Australia or countries like NZ, which are far away from anything which could harm them, Singapore does not has the luxury the become fully or even mainly professional.

 

[gary1910]

One always have to remember that Singapore fully depends on its conscription system while Australia and NZ are fully professionals.

IMHO you just cannot send your conscripts onto oversea missions. I have no problem with a conscription system as long as the draftees are purely meant for home defense tasks.
Forcing your male children to serve and then send them onto some oversea missions is just wrong. Especially when you consider the doubtfull results and background of many UN missions all around the world.

And unlike bigger countries like Australia or countries like NZ, which are far away from anything which could harm them, Singapore does not has the luxury the become fully or even mainly professional.

In fact it was written in the constitution, our National Service ( NS, i.e. conscription system ) is meant for only 2 things, one is for training( 2 years of NS fulltime and 10 years of recalled training ) and the other to be deployed during an emergency which is only after a Presidential Emergency Order.

Everything is written black and white, so the govt could not simply send anyone for oversea operation.

Moreover, Singapore Army only have about 15K of professional regulars which are mainly commanders, instructors ,administrators etc who are needed to to run , to train the NSF etc , for the whole SAF. So in reality, the govt does not have many available for large scale oversea operations.

So far,most of time, for UN peacekeeping missions, SAF usually sent observer or medical team, only recently to a more combat role.

For example ,Timor Leste( one company of infantry, mainly regulars and volunteer NSF, a medical team and a helicopter detachment), Iraq and Afghanistan which included LSTs, C-130s, KC-135s and medical teams.

This is what SAF could spare so far, due to it's mainly conscripts nature and their constitutional rights and political backlash if one volunteer conscript dies during oversea operation which the govt could not afford.