ROCKHAMPTON (Australia) - THE awesome firepower of the Singapore military's latest armour, the Leopard 2A4 main battle tanks, was demonstrated in their first major overseas exercise on Saturday.

Two of the German-made Leopards - the Singapore Armed Forces' first heavy tanks - fired live rounds as they took part in the SAF's annual exercise, codenamed Wallaby, in Rockhampton, Queensland.

They were among 100 armoured vehicles backing thousands of 'blue', or friendly troop forces, giving a hammering to the 'red', or enemy forces.

The two Leopards were key assets in pre-emptively crippling the aggressors before the red forces could launch an offensive.

Critical too in spotting the targets was a network of sensors, including pilotless planes or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and mobile land radars surrounding the sprawling battlefield.

Apart from the tanks' big guns, other 'shooters' plugged into this network were the the F-16 fighter jets, Apache AH-64D attack helicopters and lightweight artillery guns. Their coordinated thrusts took out the targets quickly and precisely.

Finally, the Leopards, leading a convoy of M113 Ultra armoured personnel carriers, moved in to cut off enemy reinforcements, gunning down remaining hostile targets with their 120mm guns.

The manoeuvres successfully demonstrated the SAF's ability to deliver knockout blows to enemy forces and, importantly, 'breaking them down' in the shortest time.

'Today's enemy is dynamic and mobile. We must deliver the extra edge to deny them the ability and chance to strike us first,' said Colonel Ishak Ismail, director of the exercise, which started earlier this month and will end on Nov 16.

The exercise in Queensland's vast Shoalwater Bay training area - four times Singapore's size - is the latest in a series of SAF drills to validate new war-fighting concepts and technologies.

Read the full story in tomorrow's edition of The Sunday Times.