Editorial: Singapore's Defense Budget Climbs 5.7 Percent

A Singapore Navy Formidable class Frigate (File Photo)

By Franz-Stefan Gady

Singapore’s defense minister is worried about hybrid warfare and wants to remake the military.

Singapore’s defense budget will increase by 5.7 percent in nominal terms to $9.5 billion for fiscal year (FY) 2015, according to numbers published by the Singaporean Ministry of Finance (MOF) this week. In addition, IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly reports that defense expenditure will increase as a proportion of GDP for the first time since 2009, rising from 3.2 percent of GDP in 2014 to 3.3 percent for 2015.

This is in accordance with Singapore’s policy of gradual increases to military spending. “Our approach is to plan long-term and maintain defense expenditures steadily,” Singapore’s Minister for Defense Ng Eng Hen noted in a speech in front of the parliament at the beginning of this month.

During that speech, the defense minister also emphasized that the SAF (Singapore’s Armed Forces) needs “to re-make itself in response to a changing landscape from new security threats,” such a hybrid warfare, by stepping up investments in cyber defenses, unnamed aerial vehicles, information technology, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

The majority of ASEAN countries have failed to develop a domestic defense industry, yet Singapore is a notable exception, “with capabilities on par with international competitors,” as a McKinsey & Company study states. For example, Singapore is a Security Cooperative Participant (SCP) in the United States’ F-35A combat aircraft program and is expected to place an order this year. 

Read the full story at The Diplomat