Would Malaysia stand a chance in a war with Singapore?
Would Malaysia stand a chance in a war with Singapore?
Probably not, what makes its occasional provocations against the city-state (like the latest video published during Singaporean NDP) even more comical.
Seems like Malaysia was trying to flex muscles during Singapore's National Day Parade but for the love of me I have no idea why they keep doing things like this over the years.
On August 21, during the NDP, Malaysian Army posted a really comical video showing a hypothetical paratrooper trop, connecting two cities across a body of water and threatening to obliterate the enemy.
What's the purpose?
To highlight how underequipped, broke, disorganized and lacking any planning their military is? (and that they don't know how to upload an HD video to Facebook?)
It's like a satire on themselves just like when they sent "Pedoman" (no other names for a navy boat?) to infringe on Singaporean waters under Mahathir.
After close to 60 years since separation - at Malaysia's own will - it still hasn't learned anything.
Firstly, that there's really no reason to want conflict with Singapore. Both countries have far much more to gain working together (though it seems that Malaysia can't contain its envy of how well SG is doing).
Secondly, that despite its diminutive size, Singapore would wipe Malaysian Armed Forces out relatively quickly.
Why would you want to start a fight that would get you humiliated in a matter of days? Heck, why would you even float the idea if we all know the figures about your 2nd rate military that can barely cobble a few working planes together?
After decades of pillaging the country by the corrupt Malaysian "elites", they can't even buy new fighter jets and have shelved their planned purchase of additional multirole fighters, opting for light attack aircraft instead.
This is why they have only 28 airworthy fighters in service - while Singapore boasts 100 + four F35s on order and an option for eight more in this decade.
(It was announced in May that Malaysia is pursuing RM96.6 billion from those involved in the 1MDB scandal - that's over US$22 billion - easily enough to finance a purchase of 100+ F35 jets.)
Malaysian Army has no attack helicopters, which would be very effective in aiding any ground combat on the peninsula. They don't even have respectable tanks. They bought Polish PT-91, which is an upgraded Soviet T-72 - not a bad tank but even Poles who sold them these use German Leopard 2's as the core of their armored forces - just like Singapore does. A single L2 was capable of eliminating at least 2-3 T72s for a single own loss (in reality probably even more).
Plus, SG has nearly FOUR TIMES as many. Granted, not all are deployed in SG (some are stationed in foreign training grounds e.g. in Germany) - but it still can deploy more than enough to repel the paltry 48 that Malaysia operates. Assuming they would ever engage in ground combat and not be destroyed by the AH-64 helicopters or jets.
To make it even more comical, Malaysia doesn't even have proper amphibious vehicles to invade Singapore quickly and in significant numbers across the straits - so that quip by the officer from the propaganda video about fighting "to the last drop of blood" would easily become true for each and every one of them.
Particularly given the fact that Singapore would quickly achieve air superiority, likely obliterating RMAF in a day or two, given the limited number of aircraft it has and patchy air defenses.
Paratroopers landing anywhere in SG can't count on any support and, as a result, would turn into an excellent training practice for Singaporean soldiers.
Without air superiority and effectively trying to invade an island surrounded by a wide moat, Malaysian ground forces would be cannon fodder for Singaporean planes, long before the city-state's army would even have to be deployed on the other side of the Straits of Johor.
After a few days of pounding from the air the only thing left to do would be to go for a leisurely ride up to KL, as Malaysian remnants hide in panic in the bushes.
The only explanation I can come up with for this comedy is that someone up north is so desperate to save Malaysia from its politicians, that they want to provoke Singapore (knowing that it would quickly win any military conflict) in the hope of having it take control of the country to finally introduce some civilized governance.
This actually would make sense - but I'm not sure SG is this generous.
This is a good question to overthink the answer for , especially if you are bored doing nothing in puny 1000 sq foot home in the sky in a Singapore HDB. This question is nothing more than a instigation by the fat cats at the the Singapore Armed forces to justify their spending. Of course this is backed up by the the top echelons at PAP to continue indoctrinating Singaporeans that they know best and that Malaysia is our bogeyman that may “attack” us one day. The truth is Malaysia had voluntarily booted Singapore out of Malaysia, despite the late Lee Kuan Yew’s little known aspiration (amongst Singaporeans at least) to be the Prime Minister of a larger Malaysia as opposed to ruling merely a city state like Singapore. It was him who cried in 1965; not the Malaysian politicians remember?. The truth is the majority of Malaysian Malays still despises the presence of its declining minorities of 7.5 million Chinese and 2 million Indians. This is despite their massive contribution to the Malaysian economy by the minorities. None of them will ever entertain the prospect of having to absorb an additional 4.5 million Chinese and Indians which now consists of ex PRCs and Indian citizens with BJP views. It will upset the balance of politics so much……so for Malaysia to consider attacking Singapore, fat chance. For Singapore to consider attacking Malaysia, there is simply too much to lose.