If Malaysia were to really to acquire and put to operational
ready status, Singapore is going to have problems.
Iskander E is a solid booster missile, with minimal maintenance
required. I assume the warhead guidance electronics would
require regular attention. Overall lower than a couple
squadrons of Flankers.
This would mean MAF would have really hard teeth that is not
tempered by their iffy maintenance. This coupled with the
fact that SAF is unlikely to do a first strike, this means more bad
news.
One of the possible way to counter this is ABM. Something
that several posters have pointed out.
1. S-300 is not on the table. Yeah right the Russians is going
to show off their underwear to us.
2. Arrow. This is a static system, so a big no no.
3. Patriot. Serious engagement issues on top of way too
many strings attached.
4. Standard series - SAF needs to buy a new radar system.
5. ?
This will get to another level of, call it whatever you want,
the arms race by ASEAN countries. No I don't think anyone
wants to go down that road, Singapore included.
like someone mentioned before, an interest dosent equate into
buying it. dont need to lose sleep or worry about it all night
long.
1) havent you heard the famous adage ? the russians will sell
their mothers for the right price. we just might be able to get
S300s if the right amount of funds are avaliable in the hands of
the right people. might be able to get it on the quiet too.
2) a static BMD system might be a trade-off in terms of tactical
liability but we might get more than that if we get the arrow2.
like with most of our military deals, it might include a technology
transfer or special customization from our Mexican friends. it
might even be custom-made into a mobile system for us. Might have
more spinoffs for us too.
3) Patriot ? lets see who has it in the region. SK has some, TW
just bought some (its on display outside the presidential palace in
taipei, can see it if you take a cab and drive past the area),
Japan has some.
that leaves pretty much Thailand and US(singapore) who fall into
the threat radius of XX country's ballistic missiles (interpret XX
howsoever you like, there's more than 1 nation with ballistic
missiles in theater).
thailand cant get it because they signed the ABM proliferation
treaty. that leaves us as the only major US ally within a threat
ring posed by ballistic missiles in the region (unless you wanna
count australia too but that might be technically impractical. most
aussie cities are along the southern coast)
us getting it may not be that much of a financial constraint,
but rather a regionalized political constraint (asean non-amity
agreement: i.e we wont fight with each other)
4) standard system ? doubt it. we probably made the commitment
to another family of SAM missiles when we bought the
Formidable.
like tankie mentioned. it really has to do with status quo. if
we do get something like that, might upset someone else's
sensibilities and percieved sense of insecurity. thats the big
danger.