SAF elite that's fighting the clean fight

wuming78 SG

Today, The Straits Times starts an occasional series that looks at the people, firepower and capabilities of special units in the Singapore Armed Forces and Singapore Police Force. To kick off the series, Defence Correspondent DAVID BOEY takes a look at an elite SAF unit on the front line against chemical, biological, radiological and explosive threats

SINGAPORE's decision to build up its chemical-biological defence capabilities from scratch claimed an early 'casualty' in the late 1980s. It caused Captain Ho Kong Wai to lose the deposit he had paid for his wedding dinner. Worse still, he wasn't allowed to tell his wife-to-be that the wedding had to be postponed because he had to attend a chemical defence course in the United States. He and another man were the first SAF officers handpicked for the course in May 1988.

To the young officer, the honour was a bombshell.

'My marriage was to be held at a local hotel in the same month. The down payment had already been paid. Then, out of the blue, my chief called me up and said: 'You're going overseas. It's a classified course and you can't tell people about it.' It was so hush-hush,' he said.

Now 43 and a colonel, he heads the SAF's Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Explosives (CBRE) Defence Group. Formed several years ago, it was unveiled only last January.

The US course Col Ho attended laid the foundation for the group's capabilities in preventing chem-bio, radiological or explosive threats to Singapore's interests.

As one of the national authorities on such threats, the group must ensure various parties - from police and civil defence staff to defence scientists - work together. Its mission is supported by homefront security agencies such as the Home Affairs Ministry, police and civil defence force.

The Defence Science and Technology Agency, DSO National Laboratories and the Defence Medical and Environmental Research Institute also help CBRE acquire and maintain chem-bio defence skills.

CBRE has to contain such threats and mitigate their impact on life and property. It also has to handle the consequences of incidents involving chem-bio agents, and help the authorities clean up contaminated sites.

The catalyst that spurred the SAF to study such capabilities was the impact chem-bio agents had on cities during the eight-year Iran-Iraq War. The 1995 Sarin gas attack in a Tokyo subway, which killed 12 people and injured more than 5,500 others, proved it was a far-sighted decision.

With terror threats around the world, CBRE capabilities are much in demand and the group has been fully trained, organised and equipped to handle such threats for three years.

Three specialised units with complementary skills form the CBRE Defence Group:

36th Battalion Singapore Combat Engineers (36 SCE). This battalion handles explosive threats such as unexploded ordnance, disposal of war relics and preventive sweeps for home-made bombs, otherwise known as improvised explosive devices or IEDs, and chem-bio IEDs.

39 SCE handles surveillance and detection of chem-bio and radiological threats and also decontamination, if there is an incident.

Medical Response Force is a specialised group of military doctors and combat medics trained to evacuate and treat chem-bio casualties.

These units are staffed mainly by full-time national servicemen (NSFs), and women SAF regulars also serve. As late as the mid-1990s, SAF chem-bio defence capabilities were so secret NSFs posted to the battalion got only an Armed Forces Post Number as a reference number. These NSFs couldn't tell family members what they were trained to do, or even the name of their unit.

So it was with some pride that CBRE soldiers told their loved ones what they had been trained for, after the announcement made page one headlines in various newspapers a year ago.

Private Conrad Ho, 19, an NSF chem-bio defence trooper with 39 SCE, said: 'When I enlisted, I wasn't aware of this capability. I was quite surprised to know about the chemical defence battalion and feel rather proud of what we're trained to do. And special, especially when we go for training with our gas masks on.'

The veil of secrecy cloaking the CBRE enhanced its mystique, and chem-bio troops training in their chemical defence kit and gas masks caught the imagination of others who saw them train, including Third Sergeant Shawn Lim, 19, an NSF combat medic with the Medical Response Force (MRF).

He said: 'When I was a trainee with the School of Military Medicine, I used to see the MRF medics train in their chemical defence gear and I told myself I must get into this force no matter what.'

When the SAF began to build its chem-bio defences, there were bigger problems to tackle, including training.

'In those days, chemical defence training was still classified, very sensitive...so we had to purposely look for a training area away from the public eye,' Col Ho said.

'A lot of exercises were done on Saturdays and Sundays and at night when people weren't around. If you ask me, those were the challenges.'

The Defence Ministry gave Col Ho several options after 39 SCE was formed. For one of the SAF's newest battalions, the colonel picked one of the oldest camps. It had few facilities, such as swimming pools or running tracks, found in more modern complexes.

However, it was far from public view and in an inaccessible part of the island, which suited Col Ho's purposes. Moreover, its lush surroundings reminded him of a British army camp where he had gone on a chem-bio defence course.

Other specialised training facilities are the SAF's smoke training facilities, where CS gas or tear gas is used to teach soldiers how to respond to chemical incidents. Since the gas can drift downwind and affect civilians, it's used for training only in confined spaces, said Col Ho.

From an observation room attached to the chamber, safety officers can monitor what goes on inside. The smoke chambers are fitted with powerful fans and air filters to scrub the air clean before it's released.

Another training aid, a decontamination facility, is built on a concrete platform once used by the air force's Bloodhound long-range anti-aircraft missiles. This facility is special too, as the chemicals used during clean-ups can't be allowed to spill into roadside drains.

Such facilities offer CBRE troopers regular opportunities to test their equipment in a realistic setting - and prepare for the worst.

-ST
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jacobs SG

That stupid pill makes you cry damn hard if you know what i’m refering to.

redblack SG

think wad 39 SCE’s doing is kinda cool. wish i wld b able to do it. btw. some questions to ask and hope i can be enlightened. 1) all e combat engineers in 39 have tertiary chemistry and biology qualifications? 2) is there any case of choosing only certain races as this issue is sensitive right.

wuming78 SG

no i dun think all the cbt engr in 39sce has tertiary chem and bio qualifications

dunno abt the 2nd qn.

wuming78 SG

Best suited to local conditions
Design of protective wear factors in myopia and weather

WHEN the Singapore Armed Force (SAF) shopped around for chemical defence suits in 1991, it found many could not be used here because they were designed for colder climates.

If a soldier put one of those protective suits on in Singapore's hot weather, the heat stress of wearing the outfit would have done him in before any nasty chemical agents did.

So it began to look at chem-bio defence suits designed for desert use.

It tested about half a dozen in 1991, before settling on a design offered by French chemical defence specialist Paul Boye.

Said Colonel Ho Kong Wai, 43, commander of the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Explosives (CBRE) Defence Group: 'When we started suit trials, nobody in the world was interested in tropical suits because the European armies operate in a different environment. They like their suits thick.

'When we were there, we wore their thick suits. We loved these suits in winter because they kept us warm. But we couldn't imagine wearing them in Singapore.'

What was needed was a suit made of a thin material that gave soldiers maximum freedom of movement and prevented excessive heat buildup, yet protected them against a range of chemical and biological agents. This was a delicate trade-off as designers in those days believed thicker fabrics offered better protection.

Col Ho said Paul Boye's expertise in making suits used by French soldiers in desert regions made the company well-placed to develop a special suit for use in tropical weather.

Today, suits made by Paul Boye are used extensively by the SAF. But finding the right one was only half the battle won.

The SAF also tested respirators, or gas masks, that could be fitted with lenses because short-sighted soldiers could not wear spectacles while kitted out in chemical defence gear.

Myopia was one challenge, seeing in the dark was another. The SAF took another year to complete extensive trials that involved soldiers running, firing and wearing night vision goggles with the respirators. Such goggles are worn on top of the masks to help soldiers see and fight at night.

Then there were other niceties to consider.

The SAF picked two types of respirators for its troops. The Swiss-made SM-90 gas mask has a central-mounted filter and is used by soldiers, while combat medics use the British-made Avon FM-12 mask that has a side-mounted filter.

'We tested them for various types of vocations like riflemen, combat engineers, medics, aircraft crew.

'Soldiers in jobs that required a great deal of downward head movements found the mask with a central mounted canister a bit inconvenient. Medics preferred it mounted to the side, whereas most of the others opted for the central mounted mask,' Col Ho said.

Once these issues were settled, the maker was asked to resize the suits to fit the smaller frames of SAF servicemen.

Various parts of the suit like the hood were also redesigned to accommodate the gas masks bought by the SAF.

Another clever redesign came from the SAF concerning the Individual Survival Kit, a small pouch containing antidotes for chem-bio agents. This pouch is kept in the bag for the gas mask which is strapped to a soldier's thigh.

The original design had all the manuals and antidotes dumped into the bag along with the mask, but Col Ho and his colleagues had a better solution.

They proposed a design modelled on a car repair kit which had all the antidotes and small items arranged neatly in order inside a foldable pouch.

'We put everything in a fixed position so even in the dark, you know where to find the equipment you need,' he said.

SAF units equipped for chemical defence train their soldiers to wear these suits in various ways.

At the Medical Response Force, medics and doctors must wear their gas mask for an hour each day. Other units have a gas mask day on which all soldiers must wear their mask from 8am to 5pm.

Captain William Ong, 26, Battalion Technical Officer, 39 SCE, said: 'We even make our mechanics repair their vehicles in their gas masks and chemical defence suits, regardless of whether they have to crawl under their vehicles.

'It's part and parcel of conditioning our soldiers to wear these suits.'
-ST