On another forum, Papsmearer commented :
Singapore is now caught in the middle of a dangerous game of one
upmanship by the US and China. I refer to the recent reports that
China wants to loan to Malaysia a battery of mobile rocket launcher
system, a powerful weapon that can fire 8-10 rounds of rocket
equipped with up to 250lb warheads within 60 seconds, then scoot
off and hide some where to reload an appear and fire again. As you
can imagine, such a system is very hard to defeat. By the time you
locate the source of the rocket firing, the whole system on an all
wheel drive platform would have moved on to another location or
gone into hiding. In the hands of a good crew and battery
commander, they are very difficult to locate and destroy. During
the First Gulf war when Iraq fired an older system known as Scud at
Israel, the Coalition spend much resources and air craft to seek
and destroy them. They were hard enough to find in a flat
featureless desert environment, they must be that much harder to
find in our type of terrain.
This is an outright provocation, there is no other way to
interpret this. China has long been sore about the accommodations
the PAP has made for the US Navy at Changi Naval Base, as well as
the aircraft repair and maintenance facilities at Paya Lebar for
the USAF, as well as Singapore being a port of call and liberty
port for the US pacific Fleet. Bearing in mind that both China and
US are rachetting up the sabre rattling and preparing for a
conflict in the south china seas. And Knowing that Singapore is a
major logistics base for the US Navy and with substantial ability
to repair US Naval vessels and aircraft, what better way to negate
and threaten this then by basing the aforementioned rockets in the
backyard of Singapore.
These Chinese rockets, the AR 3 MLRS (Multiple Launch rocket
system) can in within seconds, destroy the Changi Naval base,
destroy hangers and repair depots at Paya Lebar and elsewhere,
crater runways and possibly even sink several US Naval ships in
port. The 280 km radius also puts all US naval assets under threat
as they transit through the Straits of Malacca and as they approach
Singapore and its surrounding areas. While true that US Naval
vessels have very good anti missile defence systems such as the 20
mm Gatling gun type Phalanx Close in Weapons System (CIWS), and Sea
Sparrow anti missile missiles, what makes the AR 3 system so deadly
is that it can be fitted not only with conventional unguided
warheads but also be fitted with guided missile warheads, and when
fired in salvos with as many as 30 missiles going for one target,
makes it very difficult to defend against. Anti missile defences on
ships are designed to defeat the one or 2 missiles fired at a time
from a single aircraft or even from a flight of aircraft. But 30
missiles at a time is an altogether different prospect. This in
effect will turn the AR 3 into a mini ballistic inter theatre
missile system. A very frightening prospect is this.
The fact that the Chinese are so eager to have this missile
battery installed in Southern Malaysia, across the causeway from
Singapore, in the state of Johor is not lost on the Americans and
the PAP. How eager are they? They are so eager, they are prepared
to give the Malaysians the AR 3 for free, on a 50 year loan, saving
the Malaysians the cost of buying them outright. Wow, what a deal.
Why couldn’t the RSAF get its F-16s and F-15 on a 50 year loan too?
The loan is set up as a purchase to own type of deal where, I
suppose the Malaysians will pay on installment over 50 years. I
wonder how agreeable the Chinese will be to forgiving the loan down
the road, I am sure they will be. The Chinese will “loan” the
Malaysians 12 MLRS system, good for 4 batteries. One battery
targeting the Changi Naval Base, One battery targeting Paya Lebar,
One targeting Tengah Air Base, and one targeting the oil storage
and tank farm facilities on Jurong Island, would decapitate
singapore’s abilities in a 60 second salvo.
But who will man these MLRS when and if they arrive? I am sure
that Chinese advisors and technicians must be on hand to help
operate and maintain them. You can be sure that since these are
still technically Chinese property, until paid in full, the Chinese
will try to keep them operational at 100%. This would be in stark
contrast to other weapons systems operated by the Malaysian armed
forces and air forces where weapon availability is somewhat less
then 100%. But who will actually control them? The Chinese or the
Malaysians? Even if this report is untrue, this would set an
interesting future precedent. What if China offers to loan Malaysia
3 squadrons of Chengdu J-20 Stealth Fighters? Or 3 battalions of
Type 99 MBT? They would then have the ability to point dagger at
the US base of operations in Singapore.
If this gets hot, and the Chinese MLRS are fired from Malaysia
into Singapore, what can the PAP do? They have just put
Singaporeans in the way of these missiles. We are just like puppets
being manipulated by the US and China. Thanks to our close
affiliation with the Jewish State, and the US, I expect all our
muslim neighbours to hate us. But I never bargain that even far
away countries like China could potentially also be our enemies one
day. I bet the PAP never saw this coming. I wonder if we can
request to be a colony of the UK again, and let Whitehall handle
our foreign relations? Because, as far as I can see, the PAP is
just not cutting it.
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