Singapore Forges Next Gen Capabilities In Arizona

During its biennial overseas exercise, Forging Sabre, the Singaporean Armed Forces used enhanced C2 to further integrate fast jets, attack helicopters and UAVs into the precision, and simultaneous delivery of kinetic munitions

- JR Ng

 

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) recently concluded its latest air-land strike integration and live-fire exercise which was carried out from 28 November to 13 December 2017 in the dry and dusty expanse of the Barry M Goldwater Range (BMGR) in Arizona, in the United States.

This biennial overseas exercise, codenamed Forging Sabre, was the sixth and largest iteration to date since the exercise series began in 2005. It brought together 800 personnel from the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) and the Singapore Army to fine-tune operational planning and execution processes, as well as conducting joint live-fire training.

“This exercise provides an excellent opportunity for the SAF to validate its integrated strike capabilities through the conduct of dynamic strike missions,” said Brigadier General Tommy Tan, commander of the RSAF’s Air Combat Command and director of Forging Sabre 2017.

“These missions involve identifying ‘pop-up’ targets that may be moving, tracking them continuously and making dynamic adjustments to ongoing strike plans to destroy them,” General Tan added.

“The exercise scenarios also include destroying multiple targets in various locations simultaneously…these missions are carried out in a realistic and challenging environment which strengthens our operational capabilities.”

He also revealed that the latest exercise made use of a significantly larger area of the BMGR facility with a total area of approximately 780km² in size, in addition to the usual 300km² live range employed in previous visits, injecting an increased level of complexity for participating troops.