Page 139 - Australian Defence Magazine Sep-Oct 2022

SEPTEMBER 2022-OCTOBER 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
LAND WARFARE
REGIONAL ENGAGEMENT 139
copters for the exercise, with RSAF AH-64D and Chinooks (before the latter were assigned to the Oakey detachment) flown in and out of Australia by chartered An-124 cargo aircraft to Rockhampton to take part in the training.
However, the RSAF’s fast jets have been involved on occasion, with both F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-15SG Eagles having taken part in the exercise, flying from Rockhampton. Singaporean unmanned aircraft ranging from small tactical drones to long-endurance systems such as the IAI Searcher, Heron and Elbit Hermes 450s have also participated.
FUTURE GROWTH
The scale of the SAF’s exercises in Australia is set to grow in the coming years, with the signing of a Treaty on Mili- tary Training and Training Area Development in Australia on March 23 2020. Under this agreement, both countries will jointly develop military training areas and facilities in an expanded Shoalwater Bay Training Area and the new Greenvale Training Area (GVTA) near Townsville in Queensland. Facilities to be built under the Treaty will be mutually agreed upon by both countries.
The expanded SWBTA and the GVTA are expected to be completed by 2024 and 2028 respectively. According to De- fence, development at Shoalwater Bay Training Area is un- derway and currently forecast to be completed in mid-2024, to enable joint use from later that year. Development at Greenvale Training Area is forecast for completion late 2027.
In addition to the cost to procure land and the construc- tion of facilities, overseas exercises like these take up a sig- nificant part of Singapore’s defence budget. The costs come from the transporting of troops to the exercise location, which in Wallaby’s case sees chartered airliners, RSAF A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transports and C-130s flying to and from Rockhampton.
Singapore maintains a small SAF detachment and a small warehousing facility next to Rockhampton Airport that contains some prepositioned equipment, but most of the armoured and other vehicles used for the exercise will also need to be ferried into Australia by sea, which involves the chartering of civilian car carriers or Ro-Ro (Roll On- Roll Off) ships for the effort.
Other costs involve the hiring of contractors in Austra- lia to support the exercises, from the transporting of ar-
LEFT: The Wallaby series has recently incorporated amphibious training, using the Republic of Singapore Navy’s Endurance-class Landing Platform Dock vessels
BELOW: The Shoalwater Bay Training Area provides Singaporean troops the opportunity to train in an area four times the size of Singapore
moured vehicles from Rockhampton port to the exercise areas, to the provision of food and other services for the soldiers. The latter is good news for Rockhampton-based SMEs, which have benefitted from the annual boost to the local economy.
Upon completion, the SAF will be able to conduct large-scale integrated training across all three Services for up to 18 weeks, involving up to 14,000 personnel and up to 2,400 vehicles and equipment annually for 25 years and in training areas approximately ten times the size of Singapore.
According to the Singapore Ministry of Defence, the ad- vanced training facilities will be equipped with advanced targets and instrumentation and will include Combined Arms Air-Land Ranges and Urban Operations Live-Firing Facilities within the expanded SWBTA and the GVTA.
The Combined Arms Air-Land Ranges allow the Sin- gapore Army and the RSAF to train together with tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, unmanned aircraft, artillery and other combined arms platforms, while the Urban Op- erations Live-Firing Facilities enable various air and com- bined arms platforms to conduct live-firing in a realistic urban environment.
The new facilities will enable Singapore to conduct more complex and large-scale exercises in Australia, potentially moving some of its other training exercise such as its inte- grated seek-and-strike exercise that is currently being held in the United States, to Australia. ■
SINGAPORE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
SINGAPORE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE