Singapore Army - Capabilities

Capabilities

The mission of the Army is to deter aggression, and should deterrence fail, to secure a swift and decisive victory. In peacetime, the Army is to be ready and capable of conducting a spectrum of operations to protect Singapore's national interests and the well-being of its citizens.

The Singapore Army focuses on leveraging technology and weapon systems as "force-multipliers". The Singapore Army is capable of conducting amphibious operations with a highly developed logistics force, across all three services of Army, Navy and Air Force, as seen in the relief work in Aceh, Indonesia, after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.

Aside from hardware, the Singapore Army heavily invests in its "software". Largely made-up of tertiary-educated conscripts and professional regulars, its soldiers are highly-educated, well-trained and technically proficient.

To equip all soldiers with practical fighting experience, large-scale exercises, up to division level are conducted several times a year, exposing almost every fighting unit to full-spectrum, full-scale war scenarios. Some of these exercises also involve the air force and navy, in order to familiarise its troops with its combined arms, tri-service operations. Due to space constraints, such exercises are usually conducted overseas unilaterally. Reservists take part in overseas exercises regularly and there is persistent pressure on units to improve their operational readiness. Bilateral training and exchanges are also common between friendly nations. The Singapore Army also professionally conducts "tough, realistic and safe training in order to fulfill the Army’s mission."

The Singapore Army is currently undergoing the transformation into a 3rd Generation fighting force. The SAF's evolution into its 3rd Generation involves combining advances in technology and training while using networking to integrate the tri-services into an integrated fighting force. This will provide even greater operational-readiness and flexibility during war and peace time.