Foremost and Utmost (3rd Division:
The First Combined Arms Division)
BG Ng unveiling the plaque
On 21st March 1991, a major milestone was reached in the history of
the SAF. It was on this day that 3rd Div was officially inaugurated
as a Combined Arms Division, the first in the SAF to do so. The
guest-of-honor on this momentous occasion was the then Chief of
Army, Brig-General Ng Jui Ping and it was held at the HQ 3rd
Division.
Prior to the formation of 3rd Division as a Combined Arms Division,
there was no other unit in the SAF that had integrated combat
capabilities. Although 3rd Division worked regularly with the
various support arms, they all belonged to separate formations. The
concept of a Combined Arms Division is to combine and draw upon the
different capabilities of the support arms - namely signals,
artillery, armor, logistics, air defence artillery and combat
engineers - to augment the infantry units and achieve maximum
combat effectiveness and readiness on and off the
battlefield.
The different units within the Combined Arms Division allow it to
perform a diversity of roles, therefore creating balance and
flexibility in responding to any peacetime or wartime
contingencies. With the division commander having control over the
support units as well, the entire division is able to react much
faster. 3rd Division was also given an additional role - to serve
as the principle testbed for new doctrines, concepts and tactics
for land battles.
Its units serve as a ready force to respond to any peacetime
contingencies. Thus, with the amalgamation of these units into the
3rd Division family, training could now be better coordinated and
the co-operation between the different units further enhanced. In
the next two years, 6th Division and 9th Division were reorganized
to embrace the Combined Arms concept.
A further development came about on 4th Jan 1995 when all the
Combined Arms Divisions were reorganized to include both active and
NSmen units. Under this arrangement, 3rd Division would no longer
comprise of purely active troops as before but also NSmen as well.
This move did much to reaffirm the importance and capabilities of
Nsmen as frontline soldiers. It also meant that all three Combined
Arms Divisions could now contribute towards the development of new
Land Battle concepts, doctrines and tactics.
The inauguration of 3rd Division as a Combined Arms Div not only
brought the development of SAF as a modern army up another notch
but it was also an indication of the rapid evolution that SAF
underwent in its relatively short history.
