SINGAPORE — Rising from a spartan fleet with two wooden ships into a modern maritime force in the span of 50 years, the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) is set to play an even more important national security role going ahead given growing global trade and ongoing maritime disputes, defence analysts say.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong alluded as much when he spoke at the RSN’s Golden Jubilee last Friday (May 5).
“Because we traded with the world, and the sea was and still is our lifeline,” he told several generations of navy servicemen gathered at the Changi Naval Base, some of whom were present at the Telok Ayer Basin 50 years ago when the force was first created.
“We needed a strong maritime force to protect our sovereignty, defend us from seaborne threats, and keep trade — our lifeblood — flowing.”
The RSN took another major step forward towards that objective last Friday with the commissioning of the first of its eight Independence-class Littoral Mission Vessels. Built and designed in Singapore, it is the first of the navy’s next generation warships.
Designed for speed, versatility and efficiency, each LMV can be operated with 23 sailors. This compares with over 40 sailors needed for a conventional warship of a similar size.
The RSN has indeed come far from its birth on May 5 1967, when it had just a handful of volunteers and two seaworthy ships, wooden ones at that. A third ship, the RSS Singapura, was moored to serve as the navy headquarters.
“What our pioneers lacked in technology and resources, they made up for in their determination and resourcefulness,” said Mr Lee.
THE ‘EUREKA’ MOMENT
Singapore has owed its rapid development over the decades in no small measure to being located astride the world’s key and busiest shipping lanes. With no natural resources, Singapore is highly dependent on seaborne trade for survival — almost all of our energy and 90 per cent of our food reach us via the sea.
The Republic is also a crucial node in the global maritime system as it handles half of the world’s crude oil supply, and over US$2.2 billion (S$3.1 billion) worth of trade passes through local waters daily, noted defence commentator David Boey.
Any threat to the sea lanes which connect Singapore to the rest of the world would therefore endanger the city-state’s socio-economic well-being.
(The Fearless-class patrol vessel RSS Independence. The ship was decommissioned earlier this year, but the name lives on with the new LMV, seen on the left. TODAY file photo)
“The navy is designed for the protection of Singapore’s sea lines of communication, which we depend on for trade and for much of our basic needs of food and energy,” said former head of civil service Peter Ho, who is now Senior Advisor to the Centre for Strategic Futures in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Added Dr Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS): “Safe and secure access to the global maritime commons are thus needed for Singapore’s continued prosperity and survival.”
The less visible role of the RSN compared to the army and the air force means that it is often being overshadowed by the other two branches of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).
One other contributing factor could be that that military displays at National Day Parades tend to feature fighter jets, helicopters, tanks, and other armoured vehicles.
“There may be something in the perception of the army and air force as being the ‘sexier’ branches of modern militaries today, especially since when we have seen recent US-led wars in the Middle East being waged predominantly by ground and air forces,” said Dr Graham Ong-Webb, a research fellow at RSIS.
“This perception doesn’t do justice to the RSN.”
Mr Ho, who began his career as a naval officer, wrote in the RSN50 commemorative book — A Maritime Force For A Maritime Nation: Celebrating 50 Years Of The Navy — that during the early 1980s, there were calls to prioritise the building up of the air force over the other two services.
Mr Ho was then a staff officer in the navy’s headquarters and he remembered the navy trying to argue for more missile gunboats, but the idea was dismissed by the then Minister of Defence Howe Yoon Chong, who wanted more F-16 fighter jets instead.
Mr Ho became Head of Naval Plans Department in 1983 and he recalled having his “eureka” moment when he discovered that the value of Singapore’s trade — much of which was seaborne — was four times the size of its gross domestic product.
He then wrote a paper on the utility of the navy in protecting Singapore’s trade routes that won over the powers that be, and the RSN received a larger budget thereafter.
THE RSN TODAY
From what was essentially a small-craft navy during its initial stages, the RSN has evolved to become a force that is capable of sustained operations beyond Singapore’s immediate neighbourhood, experts say.
At the forefront of the RSN’s force-projection capabilities are its six Formidable-class stealth frigates, four Endurance-class landing ships tank (LSTs), and four submarines. In addition, Singapore has ordered two Type 218SG submarines equipped with the air-independent propulsion system that significantly prolongs their underwater endurance and reduces their detectability.
The defence ministry is also mulling the acquisition of the Joint Multi-Mission Ship, which is essentially a small helicopter carrier.
“Over the decades, Singapore’s navy has transformed steadily into a balanced force capable of handling a wide spectrum of security challenges at sea, all while having to confront persistent structural issues such as manpower,” said Dr Koh.
“It is not just able to take care of the country’s security in a traditional sense, but do so effectively in cooperation with its regional and international partners within immediate Asia-Pacific and further afield.”
(The RSS Intrepid, a Formidable-class stealth frigate being welcomed at the Qingdao Naval Jetty. Photo: MINDEF)
Operation Blue Sapphire, Singapore’s ongoing contribution to multinational counter-piracy efforts off the coast of Somalia, is the most prominent of the expeditionary operations undertaken in recent years under the SAF/RSN ambit.
For this operation, the RSN has deployed its Formidable- and Endurance-class ships for months on end to the Gulf of Aden, some 7,000 km away from Singapore.
Other high-profile operations undertaken by the Singapore navy include the deployment of three LSTs to, Indonesian waters in the aftermath of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, as well as the search-and-rescue effort following the crash of AirAsia flight QZ8501 in 2014.
Such is the level of sophistication and professionalism of the RSN today that experts regard it as a premier fighting force in Asia-Pacific.
“We have a first-class navy in the region on the basis of our cutting-edge platforms, training, and operational readiness,” explained Dr Ong-Webb.
While having both quality hardware and personnel is important, just as crucial is the ability of a particular military service to work together with other services in the multi-domain and networked operations commonplace in today’s geostrategic environment.
“One key factor for the RSN being able to hold its own against regional navies is the level of ‘jointness’ that it is able to achieve with other branches of the SAF,” said Mr Ho, who was a permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence for almost 10 years starting in the mid-1990s.
“The navy is trained to operate, not as an individual service, but as part of an integrated fighting force together with the army and air force.
“This ability to think and act jointly with the other services is a critical edge that the navy and the SAF as a whole possess.”
WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
Going forward, analysts believe that the navy could play an even more crucial role in Singapore’s national security.
Professor Geoffrey Till, a naval expert at King’s College London, told TODAY this is so because most of the ongoing territorial disputes in the Asia-Pacific are predominantly maritime in nature.
(The RSS Steadfast (left), and the RSS Vigilance seen during the 2010 Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) annual bilateral exercise, held in South-east Asia to strengthen relationships and enhance force readiness. US Navy file photo)
“The slow crawl towards South-east Asian economic integration will also provide the RSN with more potential regional contributions to make, alongside the submarine rescue as well as the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief initiatives it has taken part in so far,” he added.
However in a world that is becoming increasingly interconnected as globalisation develops apace, militaries face more diffuse and multi-faceted challenges.
“Globalisation means an increasingly complex threat domain that the RSN has to confront. Singapore’s continued dependence on access to the seas (for prosperity and survival) would see more actors coming into the picture with a more complex set of capabilities,” Dr Koh explained.
Such actors could even include non-state ones like militant groups.
The RSN will have to be forward looking in order to better respond to these challenges, said Mr Barry Desker, a distinguished fellow at RSIS.
As challenges such as maritime terrorism could often be transnational in nature, a multilateral approach to tackling them should be adopted over a unilateral one.
“The RSN will need to work with its friends and partners, at home and abroad. An effective response will ensure that the RSN plays a critical role in securing our maritime nation in the years ahead,” Mr Desker said.
