The Defence and Home Affairs ministries will test the full operational capability of the National Maritime Security System (NMSS) in a joint exercise which begins on Tuesday, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

Exercise Highcrest, which will stretch to Nov 7, will assess the NMSS's ability to assess and respond to terrorist threats on both sea and land. Rear-Admiral Jackson Chia, the Republic of Singapore Navy's head of naval operations, said no single agency or entity is able to address the threat of terrorism because of the complexity of maritime security threats.

"We recognise that we need a centralised platform to drive an integrated and coordinated whole-of-government approach," he noted.

This is done "by leveraging on the expertise and the resources of all the different security agencies in both the maritime and land domains," he added.

Conducted in two-phases, a table-top exercise and a ground deployment exercise, Exercise Highcrest will involve over 1,600 personnel from 20 national agencies, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Communication and Information, and the Singapore Civil Defence Force.