Offbeat and strange - Singapore orders 20 F-15E Strike Eagles ??

With the right weapons fit that's enough to DESTROY a lot of nations.
So what did they order?

The weapons list includes 200 AIM-120C AMRAAM radar guided air-to-air missiles, 200 AIM-9X heat seeking air-to-air missiles, 150 JDAM kits (to turn dumb bombs into smart bombs), and 60 AIM-154 JSOW (JDAM with wings, and the ability to glide 50-130 kilometers). In addition, maintenance equipment and practice missiles are also on order.

Uhhhhh, can anyone say China deterrent?

The first F-15Es will start arriving this year, with all 20 being delivered within three years. The Singapore aircraft are actually improved version of the F-15E, to be called the F-15SG. These are similar to the South Korean version (the F-15K.) The South Koreans have ordered 40 of the F-15K, and are happy with the initial batch.
These aircraft can carry ten tons of munitions for several thousand kilometers, and employ smart bombs as well as the latest air-to-air weapons.

For reference the B-17 of WW2 carried 3 tons. Therefore one could look at this as if we sold Singapore 67 B-17's with every bomb capable of hitting it's target. Since in WW2, 3-4% was considered success, these F-15's are 25 times as effective, OR, in WW2 terms... these guys have the equivalent of 1650 B-17's used that that way.

Singapore's neighbors, Malaysia and Indonesia, are buying MiG-29s and Su-30s. Malaysia and Indonesia are much larger (in terms of population and territory), and both are envious of Singapore's wealth, and position astride the Straits of Malacca (through which a large portion of the worlds trade moves). Singapore thus puts a lot of effort, and money, into its military.

Maylaysia is OIC (Mahathir anyone?), Indonesia is the largest muslim nation on earth and can't control their own jihadis to any extent at all. Singapore is an island city.

The F-15E/K/SG is a two seat version of the F-15, optimized for precision, long range, bombing. The 36 ton F-15E was developed in the 1980s as a replacement for the two decade old F-111, and entered service in 1988. Costing over $100 million each, the foreign user version of the F-15E (including the Israeli F-15I) have been very successful.