In December 2011, a citizen of Ukraine Serhiy Serkov got into big trouble - his too, so to speak, frivolous treatment of a Singapore Airlines flight attendant ended in a trial and public beating with bamboo sticks. Serious Article "Insulting the Dignity of a Citizen of Singapore" …
This was not the first high-profile case of corporal punishment against foreigners - in 1994, a similar punishment befell the American teenager Michael Fay. The young scoundrel was engaged in vandalism on the streets of the cleanest city in the world, for which he was immediately captured by the police and mercilessly beaten. Even the intervention of President Clinton did not help - in Singapore everyone is equal before the law.
Stories like these best highlight the setting in which the events described below take place. In an unusual country, they are fined for a candy wrapper thrown on the sidewalk and mercilessly hauled up drug couriers. The toughness and adherence to principles of the authorities is the only thing that allows maintaining order and ensuring the functioning of a small state. After all, the island does not even have sources of fresh water - it has to be imported from Malaysia.
And in a country smaller than St. Petersburg, there is the world's largest seaport, an airport, a developed electrical industry and even its own tank plant. The last circumstance is the most paradoxical - little Singapore has a completely inadequate amount of armored vehicles, most of which he built for himself.
The city-state, positioning itself as a tourist paradise, has over 2,000 modern tanks and heavy armored vehicles in service with its ground forces! At first glance, a comparison with North Korea suggests itself, but the impression is deceiving: Singapore is an open state, however, for some reason, Singaporeans are in no hurry to leave their urbanized and well-protected island.
Singapore steel claws
The pride of the Singaporean tank battalions is 96 main battle tanks "Leopard-2", of which only 66 retain their combat effectiveness, the remaining thirty vehicles are intended for "cannibalization" as sources of spare parts for combat tanks. The Singaporean military is practical, therefore, having imagined how they would pull 60-ton objects out of the swamps, they immediately ordered another 10 Bergepanzer BPz3 Buffel armored recovery vehicles on the Leopard chassis (the batch of ARVs arrived on May 31, 2012).
All MBT "Leopard-2A4", purchased in 2008 from the German Armed Forces, received a set of ceramic armor AMAP of the German company "IBD Deisenroth Engineering", additional mine protection of the bottom and rack armor in the rear of the tank, designed to protect against cumulative ammunition. The main scope of work on the modernization of "Leopards" took place at the enterprises of the Singapore company "ST-Kinetics". The next stage of modernization of Singapore's Leopard Evolution will include the installation of active protection ADS from the famous German company Rheinmetall.
Many foreign experts sarcastically note that the use of main battle tanks in Singapore is similar to the plot of the famous joke about an elephant in a china shop. 60-ton monsters in the tower will get bogged down in the marshy ground of the island, and tank battles in the territories of Malaysia and Indonesia generally lie in the realm of fantasy: "Leopards" will not crawl through the jungle even a meter.
But Singapore lives by its own mind, and it has found a completely competent solution for conducting military operations in the conditions of Southeast Asia.350 light French tanks AMX-13 weighing 18 tons. All of them were acquired in the 70s from the Israel Defense Forces and have now gone through several cycles of modernization, including replacing a gasoline engine with a diesel engine, installing a new transmission and suspension. The fire control systems underwent significant changes, a laser rangefinder and a thermal imager appeared (all of which are of our own production, from the ST Kinetics company). The drives for vertical and horizontal guidance of the gun became fully electric, however, the 75 mm gun itself remained unchanged - the Singaporeans did not even bother installing the stabilizer, considering that there was no way to fire on the move in the jungle.
In terms of basic design, the AMX-13 is an original combat vehicle developed in the early 1950s, with a front engine compartment, aluminum armor and a swinging turret. The French managed to do without a loader - in a small tower there are two drum magazines with 6 shells in each, the recoil force rotates the magazine and the next shell rolls onto the tray. Then, in automatic mode, ramming is performed, the shutter closes and a shot is fired. The device provides a rate of fire of 10-12 rounds per minute. Having shot the ammunition, the unarmed tank must find cover to reload the magazines (total ammunition is 36 shots).
Currently, Singaporean tanks of this type, designated AMX-13 SM-1, are gradually being phased out of service, converted into bridgelayers and other specialized vehicles.
Also in service with the ground forces of Singapore could theoretically be six dozen former Israeli tanks "Shot Kal" - modernized British "Centurions" with 105 mm guns and diesel engines. Recently, there has been absolutely no mention of these machines, but it is quite possible that they are still quietly rusting somewhere in storage bases, and maybe they have long been disassembled for scrap.
The islanders also have their own "main caliber". Since 2002, ST-Kinetics has started production of the self-propelled 155 mm SSPH Primus howitzer. To date, the Singaporeans have riveted 48 Primus and are very pleased with the result.
And also in service with Singapore there are more than 800 infantry fighting vehicles and 1000 tracked armored personnel carriers M113.
The Bionix and Terrex infantry fighting vehicles are a proprietary development of ST Kinetics. The highest priority in the development of this armored vehicle was called its security - as a result, the Singaporean armored vehicles have a huge mass - 25 tons or more (for comparison, the domestic BMP-2 is half the weight!). Modular armor provides all-aspect protection against 14.5 mm bullets, and the frontal projection can withstand hits from 30 mm shells.
Created in 1988, the tracked BMP "Bionix" has three basic options, differing from each other in weapon systems:
- Bionix 40/50 - BMP, with a 12.7 mm machine gun and a 40 mm automatic grenade launcher installed in the turret (300 vehicles in service with the Singapore Armed Forces), - Bionix 25 - BMP, armed with a 25 mm automatic cannon "Bushmaster" (200 vehicles), - Bionix II - a modern version of the BMP with an automatic 30 mm gun (200 vehicles).
BTR "Terrex" (sometimes referred to as BMP) is a heavy wheeled armored personnel carrier, produced in series since 2004. The mass of the armored vehicle is about 30 tons, the landing is 12 people. Speed on the highway 110 km / h, afloat 10 km / h.
The creators of "Terrex" paid a lot of attention to ensuring control over the environment: in addition to three standard periscopes, thermal imagers and video cameras of the circular surveillance system (ARSS), an acoustic sensor for small arms shots is installed on the roof of the car, which allows you to quickly identify the direction of enemy fire.
Each armored personnel carrier carries an EOS R-600 stabilized combat module with remote control, including a 40 mm AGL automatic grenade launcher and a 7.62 mm machine gun.
In recent years, the three infantry battalions of the Singapore Army have received 135 Terrex armored vehicles.
The Singapore army is armed with more than 1000 tracked armored personnel carriers M113A2 ULTRA, most of them are brought to the 40/50 standard with an installed combat module of the Israeli company Rafael. A smaller part of the vehicles is equipped with a 25 mm automatic cannon, some armored personnel carriers are used as self-propelled anti-aircraft guns "Mechanized Igla" with radar and six Russian-made Igla MANPADS launchers installed on them.
In general, the M113 armored personnel carrier is a floating tracked vehicle weighing 11 tons of the 1960 model. Two crew members and eleven paratroopers are reliably covered with 44 mm aluminum armor. The diesel engine provides good mobility, allowing a speed of 60 km / h on the highway.
Also at the disposal of the Singaporean military are 300 light armored personnel carriers Cadillac Commando (armored reconnaissance and patrol vehicles, according to the domestic classification). Combat amphibious vehicles weighing 7 tons with light bulletproof armor. Fifty Cadillacs in combat, the rest rusting in mothballing.
The specific conditions of the geography and climate of Singapore required special technical solutions to increase the mobility of the army. Twenty years ago, 300 Swedish articulated all-terrain vehicles BV-202 "Los" with an active trailer were purchased for the needs of the Singapore army. The military liked the unique vehicle so much that on its basis, ST Kinetics developed and produced 400 lightly armored Bronco All Terrain Tracked Carriers for the needs of the Singapore Armed Forces and more than 100 vehicles for the British Army and the Thai Army.
An important element of armored units are specialized engineering vehicles, tractors, bridgelayers, ammunition transporters, and repair and evacuation equipment. The islanders have enough of all this. The engineering units of the Singapore Army are armed with:
- 36 British FV180 Combat Engineer Tractors. "Traktor" is a universal armored amphibious tracked vehicle-loader for carrying out earth-moving and construction works in the zone of military conflicts, - 12 bridgelayers M60 AVLB on the chassis of the M60 tank, - 10 heavy armored repair and recovery vehicles Buffel on the chassis of the Leopard-2 tank. ARVs Buffel are equipped with a crane, dozer blade, winches, as well as refueling equipment, which provides the ability to perform a wide range of tasks under enemy fire, - Sapper tanks M728 Combat Engineer Vehicle, designed for the construction of defensive fortifications and the destruction of enemy fortifications. The machine is equipped with a short-barreled 165 mm cannon for throwing explosive charges, a bulldozer knife, a crane boom, a winch and an MCB trawl for quickly overcoming minefields, - Trailblazer sapper armored vehicles, as well as several dozen ARVs and bridgelayers based on the Bionix infantry fighting vehicle.
Anti-tank weapons and artillery
The Singapore army is so saturated with anti-tank weapons, as if the islanders are preparing for the Kursk Bulge. In addition to the old proven Karl Gustav grenade launchers, there are 4000 modern anti-tank missile systems SPIKE-LR and MATADOR in stock. Interestingly, the main "likely enemy" of Singapore, Malaysia, has only 48 PT-91M tanks (Polish modification of the famous T-72) in service with its ground forces.
Even more surprising is the small island's artillery. In addition to the aforementioned Primus, Singapore is armed with 230 155 mm artillery systems, it is not possible to count guns and mortars of a smaller caliber. High-tech Singapore approached the matter with its inherent practicality: 10 mobile radar stations were purchased to control artillery fire, allowing them to track the trajectory of enemy shells and conduct counter-battery fire.
As you may have guessed, the exploitation of these huge arsenals in a country the size of half of St. Petersburg is not possible. Therefore, Singaporean tankers and artillerymen are always happy to leave the narrow borders of their country in order to conduct large-scale exercises at the training grounds of the United States and Europe. For example - the annual Exercise Panzer Strike tank exercises at the largest European training ground in Bergen (FRG). In addition, Singaporeans are trying not to miss the opportunity to participate in peacekeeping operations and wars for the establishment of democratic order on foreign shores. Afghanistan, Iraq, East Timor …
In a previous article on the Air Force of the Republic of Singapore (https://topwar.ru/21345-s-pastyu-lva-na-fyuzelyazhe-obzor-vvs-singapura.html), the amazing side of Singapore-Malaysian relations was already noted: despite the rattling weapons, threatening statements and a 10-fold military superiority of Singapore, the Malaysian leadership needs only to turn off the tap on the fresh water pipeline … Yes, Singapore is critically dependent on Malaysia. And yet, a huge army played a role in ensuring the security of the state: Indonesia and Malaysia, once seriously making plans to annex Singapore, are now afraid to look in the direction of their formidable neighbor.
