Singapore, Malaysia, and the International Arms Industry
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III SINGAPORE, MALAYSIA, AND THE INTERNATIONAL ARMS INDUSTRY Singapore is a modem, ultra-clean city-state, with excellent tourist and shopping facilities. It also has the highest rate per capita of executions in the world, a large, government-regulated commercial sex industry, and is a manufacturer and exporter of weapons that are designed to kill. The Singa pore government's strong preference for execution and the city-state's commercial sex industry were looked at in The Asian Insider. It's Singa pore's role in the international arms industry that is examined here. No Messing Around Four men of Pakistani descent hijacked Singapore Airlines flight SQ 117 on March 26, 1991. The flight was on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, with 118 passengers from 18 countries and 9 crew members on board. l Armed with knives and canisters of explosives, the hijackers directed the flight's captain to take the plane to Sydney. But the plane did not have enough fuel for the journey, so the hijackers agreed to allow it to land at Singapore's Changi Airport. The four claimed to be members of Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Pakistan's main opposition party. Their demands included the release of various PPP leaders from prisons in Pakistan. Once at Changi, they asked that the aircraft be refueled so that it could be flown to Australia and there after to Iraq or Libya. The first load of fuel was delivered to the aircraft at about 3am. The hijackers agreed to release ten women and children before the next load of 138 M. Backman, Inside Knowledge © Michael Backman 2005 Singapore, Malaysia, and the International Arms Industry 139 ,----, fuel. But they changed their minds: no hostages would be released. By 6am the hijackers decided that the plane, still with insufficient fuel for Sydney, should now fly to Jakarta. Forty-five minutes later they issued a deadline: if their requests were not met within five minutes, they would start to kill the hostages. At around 6.50am, hooded Singapore Armed Forces commandos were given the command to storm the plane. They had been waiting beneath its rear section. They propped their ladders against the sides of the plane and opened its doors from the outside. Twenty commandos stormed in, from both ends of the aircraft. They detonated stun grenades to immobilize the hijackers, while screaming to the passengers to get down. Automatic gunfire followed. Within minutes the commandos had killed three terrorists with their precision shooting. The fourth grabbed a woman to shield himself. Another passenger grabbed the woman away, allowing a commando to open fire at close range, and the fourth hijacker was killed instantly. The storming was over in just four minutes. Each of the four hijackers was dead and not a single passenger or crew member had been harmed. The authorities had not even needed to close the airport. It was one of the cleanest, most efficient endings to a plane hijacking ever. Singapore has developed one of Asia's most advanced armed forces, as the four hijackers were to learn, if only briefly. It has also developed one of the region's most sophisticated defence industries. From where did Singapore receive the inspiration for all this? Israel, with whom Singapore has close military ties. It turned to Israel for help to create a defence force after its separation from Malaysia in 1967, when the British advised that they would be withdrawing their forces from the island. Malaysia did not recognize Israel (and still doesn't), but Singapore did immediately. And with recognition came assistance. Singapore's Armed Forces routinely participate in joint exercises with other armed forces in the region. This helps with training but also provides knowledge of regional capabilities. Not surprisingly, the Singaporean forces invariably are superior, and sometimes the gap is very wide. Singaporean soldiers who have been involved in joint exercises with the Indonesian military have told me how two or three Indonesian soldiers are "routinely" killed when it comes to exercises that use live ammunition. Accidents are common. Often Indonesian soldiers are shot dead by their colleagues. In summing up the Indonesian generals' attitude towards their troops, one former senior Singapore army officer told me that "life is cheap." 140 Inside Knowledge --- ST Engineering For many, getting to know the real Singapore can be a surprise. Few realize that Singapore is home to an armaments and munitions industry. The biggest player in the sector is a Singapore government-linked company, ST Engineering? But the sector is not simply focused on arming Singapore's military. It has become heavily export focused. Singapore's Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) handles a lot of the research and development. The rationale is that there is a need for armaments and the other paraphernalia of the battlefield to be redesigned to fit the physique of the Asian soldier and also to function effi ciently in tropical conditions. With most weapons being designed in Europe and North America for larger bodies and cold to temperate climates, it is a marketing pitch that ought to appeal to prospective clients in Asia, Africa, and South America. ST Engineering has four main subsidiaries that are involved in military research and hardware manufacturing, although not exclusively: ST Kinetics, ST Aerospace, ST Marine, and ST Electronics. ST Kinetics is ST Engineering's key military hardware division. It was formed in 2000 by the merger of Singapore Technologies Automotives with Chartered Industries of Singapore. It has almost 3000 employees and operates from new premises in Jalan Boon Lay in Singapore. From its Singapore Technologies Automotives parentage, it still has considerable automotive interests, including its ownership of CityCab, a taxi company in Singapore with over 5000 vehicles. But it's the military hardware business that the company is now most eager to expand and promote. The shopping catalog for ST Kinetics makes illuminating reading: Field air defence mounts, advanced mortar systems, remote weapon stations, automatic grenade launchers, machine guns, assault rifles, and howitzers all made in Singapore are available for order. On the munitions side there are various rounds, cartridges, and grenades. But that's not all that ST Kinetics produces. It has developed the Terrex AV81, an eight-wheeled light armored vehicle. ST Kinetics later bought a 25% stake in Ireland's Timoney Holdings, the company that designed the vehicle on its behalf. The vehicle has become part of the company's export push. ST Kinetics signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) in 2002 with the Turkish automotive manufacturer Otokar to jointly develop an 8 x 8 vehicle based on the Terrex AV81 prototype to bid for a supply contract with the Turkish army. And it has developed infantry carriers that have been sold to the US army. But it's the SAR-21 automatic rifle that is perhaps ST Kinetics' best- Singapore, Malaysia, and the International Arms Industry 141 known product. (SAR is short for Singapore army rifle and 21 refers to the twenty-first century.) For many years Singapore's Armed Forces had used M16Al rifles manufactured in Singapore under license. But the terms of the licensing agreement meant that exports were difficult. So that Singa pore might earn export dollars from its rifle production, it developed its own rifles. The first local rifles to be developed were the SAR-80 and the SAR-88. The SAR-80, for example, was then sold to South Africa. But it was the SAR-2l into which most development and energy has been expended. It was developed by ST Kinetics both for Singapore's Armed Forces and to sell overseas. Modifications allow it to be converted into a machine gun and a grenade launcher. "The SAR-2l is among the best handling and easiest rifles to use that the author has ever experienced," wrote one interviewer for lane's International Defence Review.3 Others say that since it's gas operated, it's prone to jamming. Sales have been disappointing. The market for rifles, like for most light munitions, has become commoditized. They're easy to make and replicate and conse quently margins are low. ST Kinetics is a regular exhibitor at international arms fairs, including the International Defence Exhibition in Abu Dhabi, Defence Systems and Equipment International in the UK, the Latin America Defentech in Brazil, and the Armor Conference in the US. In the US, its weapons are marketed and distributed by VT Systems, an ST Engineering subsidiary. In March 2001, it signed an MoU with Italy's Oto Melara to co-develop a variant of its 155mm lightweight self-propelled howitzer. It has also developed its 40mm air bursting munitions ssystem in collaboration with Switzerland's Oerlikon Contraves. And there's a development agreement with Australia's Innovonics for the installation of fleet management and vehicle monitoring systems for its Bronco all-terrain vehicles. What will the future bring? ST Kinetics is reportedly keen to move away from production of conventional weapons, munitions, and vehicles toward robotics, guided weapons, and unmanned aircraft. The desire is to move toward production of more sophisticated weaponry for which margins are higher and the potential for export earnings greater. ST Kinetics' sister company ST Aerospace is a genuinely global player in the market for upgrading and maintaining military and commercial aircraft. It provides upgrade packages to the world's air forces to "provide maximum performance and survivability" for fighter, transport, and rotary wing military aircraft. Recent clients have included the Turkish air force for which ST Aero space upgraded 48 F-5 fighter aircraft; the Brazilian air force, which awarded the company a similar upgrade contract; and the Singapore air 142 Inside Knowledge force.