Urban assault concludes SAF-US Marines exercise

Around 800 soldiers from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and US Marine Corps concluded their annual bilateral exercise with an urban assault scenario on the morning of March 26.

- Mike Yeo

This year's Exercise Valiant Mark started on March 17. It involved 600 soldiers from the 3rd Battalion Singapore Guards and 7th Singapore Infantry Brigade (SIB), along with approximately 200 Marines from the Marine Rotational Force-Southeast Asia (MRF-SEA).

Activities at the exercise included professional exchanges between both sides, live weapons firing and heliborne training that culminated in the bilateral urban operations mission on the final day.

One of the live-firing events involved SAF soldiers and US Marines using each other's weapons at Nee Soon Range on March 21; the SAF guardsmen fired the M27 infantry automatic rifle, while the Marines fired the SAF's SAR-21 rifle.

Several training events were held on March 26 at Safti City in Lim Chu Kang.