Its not say like or don't like. The problem is whether its
realistic or not. The prospect of us having an aircraft carrier
even a small one in the next 5-10 years is not very likely.
Sure we have the money and can acquire the technology but do we
have enough people to staff this aircraft carrier? Unlikely,
because Singapore's birth rate have been decreasing steadily over
the years even with baby bonus this trend is not about to be
reversed any time soon. I don't think RSN want foreign talent to
staff our pride of the SAF too.
Assuming we do have an CBG,which is meant as a show of force, where
can they sail then? Our own terriotorial waters is already tiny and
further more being cluttered with commercial shipping as we are an
important stopover port of call. We sail into Straits of Malacca,
the Indonesian and our friendly Malaysian foreign miniters will be
knocking(maybe even banging) at our embassy doors in record time.
Sail into South China Sea, we may be caught in the squabbles
between the various claimants of the Spartly islands namely
Malaysia,PRC,ROC,Brunei,Philippines and Vietnam. That is one very
volatile area in this region.
Lastly we have 4 relatively new Endurance class LST which have
already proven their versatility in both peace time and war time
operations. If i am not wrong RSN rejected a bigger design of the
LST by ST Marine and chose the Endurance class instead.
Personally i will wish RSN to have a small 2nd hand aircraft
carrier just like what the Thai navy had but its just a fantasy at
the moment because it will not be realistic, at least for the time
being. 