TODAY
30 June, 2018
SINGAPORE — Sentosa was not the ideal venue for the Trump-Kim summit given its exposure to potential threats from the sea, air and mainland, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said on Friday (June 29) in a wide-ranging interview ahead of Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Day this weekend.
But for planning to the last detail, the SAF scored an “A” in securing the historic meeting earlier this month against external threats, Dr Ng said.
On June 12, United States President Donald Trump’s historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un went without a hitch at the Capella Singapore hotel on Sentosa.
The meeting took place after a series of diplomatic flip-flops that initially saw the summit cancelled abruptly.
When the go-ahead was given finally, the SAF had a fortnight to prepare. “From a security perspective, it wasn’t the ideal situation,” said Dr Ng.
The Sentosa venue, while allowing movement from the mainland to be restricted, was exposed to threats from the sea.
Ships traverse the busy shipping lanes south of Sentosa, and it was only a matter of minutes to make a sharp turn towards the resort island, Dr Ng said.
The potential threat of an aerial attack and from the mainland could not be ignored either.
But as good hosts, “when the guests want to choose a venue, it’s up to us to make sure that we can secure it and make sure that it’s absolutely safe”, said Dr Ng.
More than 20 aircraft guarded the skies, forming a protective dome around Sentosa and across Singapore. For instance, the country’s F-15SG and F-16C fighter jets were loaded with air-to-air missiles and live munitions, Dr Ng said.
[F15 and F16 operating costs are about US$24,000 per hour or more. Let's just round that to about S$35,000 per hour. Let's assume that every air patrol requires two planes, so that's S$75k per hour. At the lowest level of Air "coverage", the planes would only fly from about 8 am on 12 June to about 5 pm. Or about 9 hours. Fighter Air cover costs would ONLY be $675,000. More likely, there would be continuous air coverage from the moment Trump or Kim lands in SG - so from before 3 pm on 10 June - until both have left - about 11 pm on June 12. Midnight to be safe.
That would be about 58 hours. At S$75k per hour. Or about S$4.4 million. Just for air cover. And maybe during the actual meeting, we might have double up the air cover with another 2 planes, so total would be S$5m easily. This is not including the costs of keeping other aircraft on "hot" stand-by, ready to scramble.]
At sea, the Navy’s capabilities were out in force, with two Littoral Mission Vessels and a missile corvette among its fleet.
More than 100 ambulances and vehicles, and medical response teams were deployed to guard against threats on land.
Around Capella Singapore, as well as the Shangri-La and St Regis hotels in town — where Mr Trump and Mr Kim were putting up respectively — the SAF also deployed more than five chemical, biological, radiological and explosives sections and six Super Puma helicopters, among others.
To ensure safe passage into Singapore for Mr Trump’s Air Force One jet and his entourage, hundreds of soldiers were stationed to the north and south of Paya Lebar Airbase. The same was done for Mr Kim at Changi Airport.
The SAF’s mission was to deter attacks. “If any attack occurs, respond decisively, neutralise all attacks. No margin for error, no room for failure,” Dr Ng said.
[Toss in all the other preparations and costs incurred by the SAF, they would easily have accounted for 1/3 or more of the $16m costs of the summit.]
While there was no “direct information” on plots against the summit from local and foreign intelligence agencies, sophisticated networks and terror elements can hide their tracks quite well, he said.
Some outsiders were surprised that Singapore was not shut down for the summit and wondered why the Republic did not declare a public holiday or close the beaches on Sentosa, for instance.
That Singapore could function even when there was no margin for error was a “measure of strength”, said Dr Ng.
The summit validated the country’s defence systems built over more than five decades, and Dr Ng said he was proud of the SAF’s performance.
“Short of a real war or a terror attack, this is a real threat that the SAF can respond to. In exam terms, this is a preliminary test (for) which I think we scored an ‘A’… It’s a strong reassurance (of) steady investments into defence.”
Stopping short of giving the SAF an “A+”, he acknowledged that there were “some gaps” identified but declined to elaborate.
[Well, *I* would have liked a public holiday, but this is Singapore. We didn't even have a public holiday when LKY died. So a public holiday for Trump? And Kim? Who the fuck are they, man?
Proud of Singapore. ]
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