Originally posted by Sepecat:You mean you cannot have Russian & European fighter alternatives when you have US aircraft ?
The RMAF has F18s, F5s, MIG29s and SU30s.
The Pakistani AF has F16s, Mirage III, Mirage V, F7s , A5s
Egyptian AF has F4s, F16s, Mirage 2000s, J7s, MIG21s
Indian AF has MIG29, SU30, Jaguar, Hawk, Mirage 2000 & are considering F18s, Typhoons etc
The list goes on....................
Your are insulting the RSAF. Singapore, DSTA, SAF & especially the RSAF are extremely well known globally to be first class procurement agencies. They do not " sar kar " anyone. Please apologise immediately to the RSAF.
The US administration changes every 4 years & with each change policies change.
Just because we & others may seem close to the USA now does not guarantee a cozy relationship tomorrow. You forget there was a time when RSAF cud not purchase top of line fighters from the US - we were then allowed to purchase F16-79s or F20s rather than the F16A. Also, the US refused release of source codes when we wanted to purchase air to air radars for our F5s. We went to the Italians instead.
Waiting for someone to drop us is a poor strategy. When it happens it be too late. A fighter squadron takes many years to be operational.
india and pakistan i can understand, cos they got big big airforce and they got lots of credits to bargain with the big powers.
most big powers would probably think twice before offending either one of them.
malaysia i cannot understand, they got 3 small basket, even when put together, those baskets wont save them.
yet, in peace time, they have to please all 3 baskets just to keep the 3 baskets flying.
in war time, conflicts of interest between different baskets would see at least one if not two baskets grounded.
as mad hatter said himself, he cant use the F-18 against singapore, and has to rely on the MIGs.
but wont the opposite hold true if RMAF were to pit against russian interest?
think abit further, wat if RMAF were to take on china over the south china sea island squabble... would even a single fighter from any of those baskets be flying at all?
which kuku bird in US, EU or RUS wanna step on the toes of a fellow UNSC perm member over an island of no concern to them?
Clearly, India & Pakistan do not have much bargaining power with the US. The US chooses to engage these countries only when it sees a strategic or political advantage to do so. Remember that the US is currently the only superpower - it is they who will dictate terms.
It is also obvious that any arms purchase & especially top line fighters come with some strings attached, no matter from whom you purchase it from.
The the crux of the matter is that having all your eggs in one basket is extremely risky. Better to have a European, Chinese or Russian fighter than no fighter at all !
which kuku bird in US, EU or RUS wanna step on the toes of a fellow UNSC perm member over an island of no concern to them
I was just wondering which Kuku bird would allow china to dictate the entire SCS? China already stretch its influence with N.K and Myanmar. But rather the interest is to maintain status quo in the region.
In recent article sited by wall streets.
Vietnam had signal better relations with the US. and bought attack sub from Russia.
MY had signal better relation with the US by agreeing sanction on Iran. and there has been talk about sending troops to Afghanistan.
US has resume some form of military training on counter terrorism unit in indo. I figure unit 88 was trained by the US.
Geopolitical interest in SCS isn't going to change much. There are just too many over layers interest. Singapore is too small. So enjoyed the teens for now.
Unless Malaysia/Indonesia etc starts IOCing many squadrons of Typhoons or Rafales in the next couple of years I wouldn't worry about it! This is strawman argument at best.
You are looking strictly from a apples to apples comparo in air/air computer simulation scenario. Even those data is old. In the real world that data is useless.
The F-15SG is the right choice given the tactical and strategic requirements of the RSAF. Let's not forget political too. When you take into account the "non tactical" reasons such as supply chain and logistics, flight training, maintenance, realibility etc it makes sense to pick the Eagles over others. I would says maybe the FA-18 E/F would be a good choice but ultimately short of getting the Raptors this is probably the next best thing for RSAF. RSAF also intends to buy the F-35 when it's available in the next 5-10 years so they will complement each other as well.
As others have mentioned while the airframe design dates back to the 60's but everything else is pretty much modern equipment. The AESA radar is the most significant in my opinion and it can carry the most advance weapons system..
Don't forget also that the F-16 C block 52 onwards is an extremely capable aircraft that can take on any 4.5 Gen aircraft and it's design dates back almost as far also lah!