There is one aspect of Israel's history and modern life that has been relatively poorly studied by international experts. This state, which is actually in a state of permanent war with the Arab world and has accumulated considerable experience in military construction, actively helps many states in different parts of the world to create armed forces. Among them is Singapore, which has been cooperating with Israel in the military field for about 40 years.

Singapore's construction of its own armed forces coincided with the search for dialogue and mutual understanding by the countries of Southeast Asia (SE), which came after a long series of sharp contradictions, mutual reproaches and even direct confrontations that prevented the formation of their independent statehood after the fall of colonial regimes. This search was eventually successful - in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which still exists today, was created, which in the first stages included Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore.

The desired results did not come overnight. And after the formation of this organization, there were occasional misunderstandings and disputes between the ASEAN states. Examples include the aggravation of the Philippine-Malaysian conflict over Sabah in 1968; the bloody inter-ethnic clashes in Malaysia in 1969, which caused tension in Singapore-Malaysia relations; the aggravation of territorial issues between Malaysia and Thailand, etc. But integration within the framework of ASEAN reflected the vital interests of former colonial and semi-colonial states that sought to transform themselves from objects of imperialist politics into full-fledged subjects of modern international relations.

THE "MUSLIM FACTOR" DID NOT INTERFERE

The Asean Five, as well as its member Singapore, were aware of the need to pursue a policy of compromise in order to develop joint solutions while upholding collective interests in the international arena. At the same time, relations between these states were characterized by mutual distrust and suspicion, which, in turn, developed into a desire to have combat-ready armed forces.

Singapore's leadership has long been tempted to involve Israel in military construction, which by the 1960s had accumulated a wealth of experience in this area. However, the country's authorities did not immediately decide to take concrete steps in this direction. A certain role in this issue was played by the so - called "Muslim factor" - the commitment of a significant part of the population of the ASEAN member countries to Islam. Indonesia is the largest country in the Muslim world, in Malaysia Islam is the state religion, and in Thailand and the Philippines at that time the problem of Muslim separatism was acute.

And in Singapore itself, the Muslim stratum, mostly Malays, was quite large - about a third of the population. A significant part of Muslims consider Singapore, along with the Philippines, to be the closest allies of the United States, Israel, and other Western countries. In such a situation, it would be very risky to move closer to Israel.

Due to these circumstances, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew first asked the leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement - India and Egypt-for help in creating his own army, but received nothing but a response... congratulations on the occasion of independence. I also turned to Switzerland, whose armed forces are considered the model of the "army of reservists", but the latter replied that Singapore should do without the armed forces at all. The UK also did not help Singapore, so as not to damage its interests in the region. In these circumstances, the appeal for help to Israel looked quite natural.

By the mid-60s, Israel already had some experience in training the armed forces of young African and Asian States. Aid to Singapore was not too difficult for the Israeli military-the entire Singapore army at that time numbered a little more than 1,000 soldiers and officers and consisted of 2 infantry battalions. Almost everything had to be started from scratch.

The Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli Army, Yitzhak Rabin, appointed Major General Rehavam Ze'evi as the curator of the Singapore project. He secretly visited Singapore, then led the work on creating a military doctrine based on Israeli experience. In the fall of 1965, the first delegation arrived in Singapore - 8 Israeli military advisers.

Task number one was "teacher training": the creation of a sufficiently large instructor corps that could independently train soldiers and officers of subsequent conscripts. In February 1966, classes began on the first preparatory three-month instructor course. In June, 300 cadets - they were selected from 2,5 thousand. volunteers, many of whom were civil service officials, began training at the Singapore Armed Forces Training Center.

They passed the "young fighter course", the course of squad commanders and the officer course itself. 117 cadets out of 300 passed all the tests. Those eliminated at the last stage formed the sergeant backbone of the new units.

The courses were extremely intensive, and when cadets unaccustomed to the drill tried to complain, Defense Minister Go Kyung-swee (by the way, one of the "fathers" of the Singapore "economic miracle") fully supported the instructors and promised the cadets a double load in case of new complaints, which immediately stopped. Israeli Colonel Elazari later recalled: "Even Lee Kuan Yew wasn't

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I am confident that Singapore will be able to stand up on its own in terms of the country's defense. Only Dr. Go Kyung Swee was sure of this."¹

The creation of the conscription army began on the Israeli model: 2 years of conscription and 10 years of annual reservist training, which made it possible to deploy large military-trained forces in a small population in a short time. In March 1967, the Singapore Parliament passed the National Service Act, and the Government conducted a broad campaign (mainly among local Chinese) in favor of the armed forces. For the Chinese, who make up about two-thirds of Singapore's population, have traditionally disliked military service, unlike the Malays.

CADRES DECIDED EVERYTHING

In July 1967, 9 thousand first recruits were called up, 900 of them were selected for service for a full 2-year term and 2 new regular battalions were equipped with them. The rest, due to the lack of command staff at that time, were transferred to the reserve and to police formations.

With the expansion of the army, all conscripts began to undergo 2-2.5 years of conscription, depending on their specialty and rank. The new army needed professionals in various fields, and in 1967 - 1968. schools were opened for training gunners, signallers, military engineers and medics. The number of units and subunits grew rapidly. The curtailment of the UK's military presence also spurred the formation of a new army. Singapore's military enthusiastically welcomed the results of the "six-day war", during which the Israelis completely defeated the Arabs, brilliantly demonstrating in practice the high effectiveness of their military doctrine. "If it wasn't for that victory, our soldiers might have lost confidence in the Israeli instructors," Lee Kuan Yew later said.²

In 1969, the Singapore Army consisted of 6 infantry battalions, combined into 2 brigades; reservist units were also successfully formed. In the same year, under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Asher Dar (by the way, who received a medal for participating in battles during the "six-day war") the first brigade-level exercises were conducted, which included the landing of infantry from light watercraft on the coast. By the end of 1970, the first Singapore Division was established.

In addition to the purely military aspect, the army in Singapore, as well as in Israel, also performed an important social function, namely, rallying the diverse population into a single nation. In Singapore, not only did Chinese, Malays, and Hindus adhere to their own religions, traditions, and ways of life, living separately and not mixing with each other, but even people from different parts of China settled in different neighborhoods and spoke different dialects. People realized that they were part of their community, but not of a common state or people.

The army was the tool with which Lee Kuan Yew and his associates intended to form a united Singapore patriotism and a united Singapore nation. In multiethnic Singapore, which is dominated by the Chinese ethnic group, a calm and stable nature of interethnic relations was achieved as a result of a stable economic system that ensures a high standard of living, and a strong centralized state power with a one-party structure of the political regime that excludes real opposition. One of the government ministers, Lee Kuan Yew, made a significant statement on interethnic issues: "If, for example, you appoint a Malay officer who is very religious and has relatives in Malaysia to command a machine-gun unit, you will take a very risky step. You should know his pedigree. This is the reality of our lives. And if neither I nor the Prime Minister think about it, a tragedy can happen. " ³

Such statements indicate that even in cases where social and economic problems are largely resolved and there are no aggravations on religious grounds, ethno-confessional tensions, suspicion and mutual distrust that have accumulated over many generations remain a factor that complicates the situation in the country for many years to come.

Of course, life makes adjustments to the good intentions of creating a unified national spirit through the army. For example, the Malay minority, despite full civil equality, is discriminated against in military service in relation to highly classified areas. In the early years of the Singapore Armed Forces, the proportion of Malay conscripts was deliberately underestimated relative to the proportion of Chinese in the army due to concerns about the potential threat of a "fifth column". But, in principle, the founding fathers achieved their goal, and the Singapore army really became a powerful unifying factor for the new "nation in the making".

FIRST OF ALL-TANKS. AND THEN THE PLANES

In 1968, it was decided to take another step in strengthening Singapore's defense capability - to create tank troops. In December, 36 officers traveled to Israel to study AMX-13 light tanks, which were withdrawn from service after the "six-day war", and take a course in tank specialties. In May 1969, this group, codenamed "Camels", returned to Singapore. In the same month, Israel-Singapore relations rose to the highest diplomatic level: the Israeli Embassy was opened in Singapore.

In July 1969, the first batch of AMX-13s was received from Israel, and in September the second batch was delivered; a total of 72 tanks were delivered. At the parade on August 9, Independence Day and the 150th anniversary of Singapore's founding, a column of 18 AMX-13s came as a big surprise to Malaysia, which had no tanks at the time. The display of military might came at the right time and is believed to have cooled some of the hotheads. For shortly before that parade, in May 1969, clashes broke out in Malaysia between Chinese and Malays. As Go Kyung-swee said in his report to the Defense Council,"...The only bright spot in the whole grim history of the race riots in Kuala Lumpur was the positive effect that our armored units had on Malay political circles. " ⁴

Simultaneously with the tank forces, artillery also developed. In 1967, the artillery school and the first Singa were established-

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Pursky artillery division, which received 120-mm mortars from the Israeli company "Soltam". During the 70s, the process of quantitative and qualitative increase in the power of the Singapore artillery took place. In the early 90's. on the basis of Israeli samples, the Singapore industry launched the production of its own howitzer "FH-88", and then" FH-2000", 120-mm mortars for infantry and self-propelled artillery units.

Along with a strong land army, Singapore needed a strong air force. These issues were handled by Colonel Adam Tsivoni, former Chief of the Technical Department of the Israeli Air Force Headquarters. Under his leadership, in 1969, 8 French Allouet-3 helicopters were purchased, which formed the first unit of the Singapore Air Force. At the same time, flight and technical schools were created. In 1970 - 1971, 20 Hunter fighters, 16 Airmaster training aircraft, as well as 35-mm anti-aircraft guns and 28 Bloodhound air defense systems were purchased in England.

The third component of the armed forces, which required the creation of almost from scratch, was the military fleet. In 1965, the Singapore Volunteer Navy had three morally and physically obsolete ships: a former Japanese minelayer and two vessels to protect coastal waters from pirates and smugglers. The new modern fleet was created according to the plan and under the leadership of the Deputy Chief of Operations of the Israeli Navy Headquarters, Zvi Torosh.

By 1974, the mission of the Israeli advisers had been completed. They developed the concept of defense of Singapore, laid the foundation for a new modern army, Air Force and Navy, trained the core of the command and instructor staff, and created the basis for further professional and technical development of all branches of the armed forces. The Israeli military presence, which began in 1965 with 8 officers and reached 45 at its peak in 1969, was reduced in April 1974. A small number of Israeli officers remained in so-called coordination positions at the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of Singapore.

Now the main interest for the Singapore army is represented by those technological areas in which Israel traditionally occupies a leading position in the world: electronic optics, remote control systems, missiles, avionics, electronic intelligence systems, command and communication systems. Israeli specialists traditionally "oversee" the development of the Singapore Air Force.

Separately, it is necessary to say about electronic intelligence, which is one of the most important tools of modern warfare. Australian military analyst Desmond Ball writes: "Singapore's electronic intelligence capabilities, especially the systems acquired from Israel during the decade 1985-1995, as well as some of its own development, are among the most advanced in the world and provide Singapore with the largest electronic warfare capability in Southeast Asia." In the decade since then, Singapore's capabilities in this area have only increased, largely due to technical cooperation with Israel.⁵

As for the total amount of Israeli military assistance to Singapore, the total amount of contracts is estimated to be at least $ 2 billion per year. According to the "Trend Indicator Value" indicator of the SIPRI International Institute, which notes changes in global arms exports and is based on comparative technical characteristics of weapons (and not on the volume of deliveries in monetary terms), Singapore ranks 1st in Israeli defense exports for the period 1994-2004, overtaking the United States, India and China.

During the 90's, Israel, according to military experts, ranked 3rd among suppliers of military equipment to Singapore. Many joint defense industries operate under the "Israeli technology - Singapore financing" scheme. In addition to the areas mentioned above, Israeli and Singaporean specialists are working together in the areas of computer security and cryptography. The Singapore Army is also provided with advice in various areas, for example, in the field of aviation psychology, conducting night and anti-terrorist operations, etc. The two countries ' intelligence agencies regularly exchange information.

OTHERS ARE STILL "LOOKING CLOSELY"

In addition to being one of the most important clients and partners of the Israeli defense industry, Singapore is also a bridge for its entry into the Asian arms markets and a reliable "third party" for transactions with countries that do not have the opportunity to openly and directly trade with Israel for various political reasons. Its strategic location in Southeast Asia makes Singapore a natural hub for establishing "outposts" and representative offices, and the world's largest port in terms of annual passing tonnage provides excellent opportunities for redirecting cargo that is not intended for prying eyes. It is significant that Israel's first defense contacts with China began through Singapore, which was also a supply channel. ⁶ According to various sources, the sale of weapons to the Myanmar Government and other regimes that are not approved by the international community and are subject to various military supply embargoes also took place through the mediation of Singapore. It also helps establish ties with countries that are traditionally hostile to Israel, such as Indonesia and Malaysia.

For them, Singapore's success in building a modern security system, of course, does not go unnoticed. Similar problems affect them no less. Despite almost 40 years of development of regional diplomacy under the auspices of ASEAN, mutual distrust and suspicion have not been eradicated in the countries of Southeast Asia, as is noted, for example, in relations between Singapore and Malaysia. In these circumstances, the latest Israeli military developments, already mastered by Singapore, are of undisputed interest to the countries of the region.

¹ www.sem 40.ru/war and peace/military/15994

² Ibid.

³ Strait Times, 30.9.2000.

⁴ Far Eastern Economic Review, 2.04.1987.

⁵ www.sem40.ru/war and peace/military/15994

⁶ Ibid.

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