Page 45 - Australian Defence Magazine July-August 2022

JULY-AUGUST 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
INFRASTRUCTURE ASMTI 45
LEFT: Republic of Singapore Air Force F-16s regularly deploy to Australia to use the Delamere Air Weapons Range
ABOVE: Singaporean CH-47 Chinooks operated alongside Army examples during the recent flood relief work in eastern Australia
Its small size and highly urbanised landscape mean Singapore’s armed forces is desperately short of space to train in, and in the 1990s Singapore started dramatically expanding a program of training overseas in friendly coun- tries, which until then mostly involved its land forces train- ing in Brunei, Taiwan and Thailand.
Allowing Singapore the use of the SWBTA for training was a significant move for its military training, for Sin- gaporean troops now had the use of a training area four times the size of Sin- gapore to conduct armoured and other manoeuvres.
Since then, Exercise Wallaby has
evolved to be a key training activity in
the Singaporean training calendar, taking place annually and involving up to 4,000 personnel. A typical Wallaby is made up of several frames, each frame involving one major unit and with specific training objectives and scenario in mind although it would involve other units in supporting roles.
An example is the 2019 exercise which was made up of two frames, the first involving the Headquarters 7th Singa- pore Infantry Brigade and 1st Battalion Singapore Guards while the second saw a unilateral training exercise involv- ing Headquarters 8th Singapore Armoured Brigade, 41st Battalion Singapore Armoured Regiment and 3rd SAF Transport Battalion from the Singapore Army.
Both frames were supported by the Republic of Sin- gapore Air Force’s Helicopter Group, Transport Group,
This expanded overseas training program included Austra- lia, when in 1990 the first of the Wallaby exercises was held at the Shoalwater Bay Training Area (SWBTA) near Rockhamp- ton in Queensland. This was a relatively
modest event by today’s standards, involv-
ing 1,200 Singaporean troops conducting
armoured battle group exercises and cul-
minating in a command post exercise.
kilometres in size and that’s only after extensive land reclamation, with its international airport and naval base at Changi in the east sitting almost entirely on land reclaimed from the sea.
With a population just shy of six million inhabitants the city state is nevertheless economically well-off due in a large part to its deepwater port sitting astride the maritime trade routes between East Asia and the Middle East/Europe.
Its strategic location, lack of strategic depth (due to its small size) and sometimes tense relationship with its larger immediate neighbours Indonesia and Malaysia has seen Singapore put a lot of emphasis on defence capability, and it is today one of the most (if not the most) capable militar- ies in Southeast Asia.
“ITS SMALL SIZE AND HIGHLY URBANISED LANDSCAPE MEAN SINGAPORE’S ARMED FORCES IS DESPERATELY SHORT OF SPACE TO TRAIN IN”
NIGEL PITTAWAY
DEFENCE