IIRC Indomitable couldn't have made it to Singapore by 10 Dec even if she didn't run aground, there wasn't enough time.
I think that given the weak CAGs the RN had at the time if she was operating in concert with Force Z in the Sth China Sea she would have been sunk by something, be it cruisers, submarines or aircraft.
Eh?
Not this again.....
Obviously air groups change but as a rule of thumb
USS Yorktown at the Battle of Coral Sea with an air group that had 14 Fighter planes (Non folding wing F4F3s) in addition to the 30 Dive and 9 Torpedo bombers she carried.
She went into battle with 53 operational aircraft (14 fighters)
Once she got F4F4s with their folding wings those numbers rose (operational experience demanded it) - just in time for Midway
Indomitable in 1942 carried 24 Sea Hurricanes (some of them cannon armed), 12 Wildcats and 16 Albacores - some sources give 1 ASV equipped Swordfish as well - for 52 / 53 Aircraft - (36 fighters)
Obviously Yorktown was focused on a more strike oriented air group but it does show that the air groups were not too dissimilar
But yes Indomitable was both not ordered to go to Singapore - after her Caribbean work up she was due to go to Gib and after her 'avoidable' grounding wouldn't have made it anyway if she had.
Obviously everything would have changed post Pearl Harbour......but Indomitable is not getting to Singapore for 10th Dec