Minister for Defence Attends Urban Operations Demonstration

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From channlenewsasia
Posted: 24 Jul 2006, 1800 hours (Time is GMT +8 hours)

Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean today watched a demonstration by the Army of its enhanced urban operations capability. The demonstration at the Singapore Armed Forces' (SAF) urban training facility in Sarimbun was conducted by the 3rd Singapore Infantry Regiment (3 SIR), which will soon be the SAF's first fully urban-capable battalion.

Mr Teo was briefed on the urban fighting concepts, new force structure and new urban operations technology, such as remote sensors, the Battlefield Management System (BMS) and precision weapons. He also viewed some of the new equipment and innovative tools employed by the SAF to train soldiers in urban combat, such as the Paintball Engagement System (PES), new practice grenade (SPG06), and the Container Built-Up Area. These will train SAF soldiers to operate in a more flexible and innovative way in a complex urban operating environment.

Apart from exploiting technology for urban operations, the battalion-sized task forces will be restructured to incorporate new elements such as company marksmen teams and sensor operators that will operate alongside tanks, armoured personnel carriers and combat engineer vehicles. The Army will be able to launch tightly coordinated operations in complex built-up areas, making use of enhanced capabilities in networked systems, precision weapons, and increased mobility and protection through combined arms action.

The new urban capabilities will be operationalised across the SAF's Infantry and Guards battalions in phases, commencing this December with 3 SIR. This is a significant development in the Army's transformation into a highly networked force that is flexible, mission-ready and capable of conducting a spectrum of operations in diverse operating environments.

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Factsheet: Urban Operations

Military operations in urban settings are becoming more common and increasingly complex, whether in conflict situations or peace support missions. The Army has therefore been developing its urban operations capabilities and is now ready to operationalise some of these capabilities in its combat units.

New Operational Structure

Urban operations take place in more dense and complex terrain, which make it difficult to detect and engage the enemy. The presence of non-combatant civilians in the built-up areas adds another challenge. To address these challenges, the fighting structure of the Infantry and Guards battalions has been expanded to include three new elements:

a. "Sensor Managers", who are specialised personnel in the rifle platoons, rifle companies and scout platoons who collect information on the enemy and disseminate the information promptly to soldiers in the assault elements.

b. Company Marksmen Teams equipped with sniper rifles have been added to the rifle companies. Shocked

c. A dedicated evacuation section, with the necessary medical equipment and expertise to stabilise wounded personnel quickly before evacuating them to safety.

The battalion will also be equipped with a Battlefield Management System (BMS) to network and share data among the entire force. The BMS has a tracking system, which provides commanders with precise updates of the location of own forces through GPS, so that the possibility of fracticide is significantly reduced. The BMS also allows soldiers who have spotted an enemy to plot the location and communicate this to the rest of the force for a more effective response.

New Operating Concepts

The concept for fighting in built up areas (FIBUA) used to require troops to close in and engage the enemy in close quarter combat. In the revised concept, our soldiers will detect the enemy from stand-off distances using remote sensors, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and unattended ground sensors (UGS). The data will also be used to acquire enemy targets for precision engagements. Once the key enemy defences have been neutralised, the combined arms task force of armoured platforms, combat engineer vehicles and infantry with an optimal mix of firepower, mobility and protection will move in for the assault.

At the individual level, our soldier will be networked with the other forces through the Battlefield Management System (BMS) so that he can communicate with them and call for reinforcements and additional fire support directly. This networking also improves our soldiers situation awareness. Among other things, it will help them to better differentiate the enemy from civilians, which is a key challenge in urban operations.

New Enabling Technologies

Our soldiers will be making use of sensors with short-range surveillance capabilities that allow them to look around corners or into the next room. These include the Round Corner Firing (RCF) SAR 21 module, the FIBUA Surveillance Ball, and the Remote Control Surveillance Car. These equipment provide our soldiers early warning of enemy presence when fighting in the built-up area, and reduce their exposure to enemy fire.

Training

All soldiers will be trained for urban operations. They will fight as 3-man clearing teams, and also operate alongside fighting platforms. They will also be trained to operate in high-stress combat environments where both the enemy and civilian non-combatants are present.

The Army is developing new infrastructure and systems for urban operations training. Containers and modular wall panels will be used to create realistic urban environments. Innovative training equipment such as paintball and laser engagement systems are employed to more realistically replicate a force-on-force combat environment. The training syllabus for the various formations and at the various levels will be revamped to cater to the new concepts.

Future Developments

With its baseline urban operations capabilities operationalised this year, the Army will continue to experiment and conduct further trials. Soldiers undergoing training with active manoeuvre battalions will be part of the process of experiments and trials to further develop the Armys urban operations capabilities.