SAF ‘constantly re-examining operations’ to deal with new threats: Chan Chun Sing

SINGAPORE – As sirens sounded, uniformed personnel sprinted across the lawns of Sembawang Country Club’s golf course to a staging area, where two Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) AH-64D attack helicopters were scrambled to deal with a simulated threat.

Within minutes, the helicopters, also known as Apache Longbows, were in the air.

The operation, part of an ongoing exercise by the RSAF’s Air Power Generation Command that will run until May 31, was witnessed on May 27 by Singapore’s new Defence Minister Chan Chun Sing.

Also present were Senior Minister of State for Defence Zaqy Mohamad and newly appointed Minister of State for Defence Desmond Choo, as well as Chief of Defence Force Aaron Beng, permanent secretary for defence Chan Heng Kee and permanent secretary for defence development Melvyn Ong.

The visit with the RSAF was one segment of Mr Chan’s “reacquainting” with the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) on May 27, as he also visited units involved in counter-terrorism operations in the army, navy and Digital and Intelligence Service (DIS) and observed their training.

Speaking to reporters following his visits, Mr Chan, a former army chief, said he was glad to see how the SAF has progressed over the years by continually asking itself what the nascent challenges and technologies that can disrupt its war fighting capabilities are.

“I’m very happy to see the SAF constantly re-examine the way it does its operations, and that gives me confidence that we will be in good stead,” he said.

At Nee Soon Camp, Mr Chan spoke to troops from the Army Deployment Force (ADF), a “high-readiness” unit equipped with niche skills and capabilities to carry out a diverse range of operations, including responses to homeland security threats and disaster relief.

He also observed the unit, which consists of regulars, mounting equipment into armoured Peacekeeper Protected Response Vehicles as part of routine training.

Earlier, he had observed the Republic of Singapore Navy’s Maritime Security Task Force neutralising a simulated terrorist attack from the sea.

He also visited the DIS’ Joint Intelligence Command, where he received a briefing on its intelligence support for counter-terrorism operations and interacted with personnel there who conduct round-the-clock intelligence monitoring. 

The DIS, the SAF’s newest service, was inaugurated in October 2022 and serves as its front-line force in the digital domain to detect, mitigate and repel potential aggressors.

Mr Chan said the SAF knows that its role is not just about today’s operations, but also about forward planning to meet future challenges.

Given that armed forces capabilities often take years to get from conceptualisation to becoming operational, what he saw gave him confidence that the SAF will be able to address new scenarios, he added.

Mr Chan recounted how he had visited various SAF units in the aftermath of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in the US, when terrorists hijacked several commercial planes and crashed them into buildings, killing some 2,900 people.

While many armed forces around the world were asking themselves how to stop another similar incident, SAF planners were also thinking of the next method of attack that terrorists could exploit.

“That is the kind of spirit that cheers me... and for many of the things that I saw this morning – some of them were capabilities that we were talking about many years ago, and today it’s a joy to see them be operationalised,” he said.

For instance, while the SAF first acquired its AH-64D helicopters in 1999, they have since been heavily upgraded with avionics and electronic warfare systems and integrated into the Republic’s air defence systems.

This means that the helicopters, which were designed primarily for anti-armour and ground support missions, play an important and growing role as part of the RSAF’s arsenal to counter a wide spectrum of air threats.

Noting that some of the capabilities he saw are still being developed, Mr Chan said he has every confidence that the SAF will be able to operationalise them to augment the defence of Singapore.