Protecting the straits

vaxjunior SG

Hi all,

A thought that came across my mind while reading ST's article on proposed joint air exercise for Singapore and M'sia to protect the straits is how well prepared and/or equipped our navy or even air force is to deal with such terrorists and/or piracy threats. I mean, we have had extensive discussions about our overall capabilities to deal with clear offensive moves by nation states but how about this clear and present danger.

I understand that most of our naval patrols is partly hampered by the extent of our territorial claims along the straits but if we have better cooperation among the littoral states, how prepared are we to deal with such situations. Forgive my ignorance in this but I guess we are definitely better armed than the pirates etc but what about their tactics and ability to hide/knowledge of the straits etc. It is similar to how the Brit police have to learn new tactics from Srilankan police and Israeli police in dealing with suicide bombers.

How would sea-air coordination work? I have been exposed, I guess, from movies and own experiences of how land-air exercises work but with the sea-air aspect, it would seem very interesting to discuss abit of this dimension of warfare especially against unconventional enemies.

Comments anyone?

38 SG

Datalink?

Like how the US-Japan link16 works.

However, It's impossible for S-M to do the same job Wink

So, don't read too much into such Joint-exercise. At most, it's just a showcase of " friendship" insteady of any ture military meanings, and it's more a low-tier maritime security co-operation

lionnoisy SG

About 50,000 ships use the strait every year, carrying a quarter of the world's sea-borne trade, including half its tanker-shipped oil........

The danger has prompted
Lloyd's Joint War Committee to designate the (Malacca and Singapore ) straits as a war and terrorism risk. Shipowners, who normally take out annual policies, will have to approach their underwriters before going through it and a premium may be charged, with potential effects on global trade.
Neil Smith, the marine manager Lloyd's Management Association, said: "The number of incidents has come back to pre-tsunami levels if not more. Sooner or later one of these attacks is going to go badly wrong, we fear."

fr Pirates resume their attacks after post-tsunami lull
By Sebastien Berger, South-East Asia, Correspondent (Filed: 20/07/2005)
fr http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/07/20/wpirate20.xml
This news was also quoted by Foreign Minister George Yao in ZAOBAO front page 30.07.2005.

Clear and present danger in our door step!!

vaxjunior SG

I agree that we are not at that level of cooperation as US-Japan, but I do know from navy friends that we conduct regular naval exercises with M'sia (as part of the Five-Nations thingies). So it is not really low-tier. However, I am not sure how those trainings are conducted i.e. with respect to a larger campaign type. I remember somewhere back there was some discussion about Command Post (CP) type of training for our commanders with US naval fleet too. But with these type of new threats coming to the fore, how well are we able to tackle them. It is not really about deterrence and firepower but of strategies and of planning. Like someone mentioned in a different thread - it is how you place your men and guns for different purposes i.e. attack or defence that makes the diff. Not so much of counting how many guns, radars, missiles etc.

Sorry for the ramble...anyway...are there any navy guys who would care to comment? Any ops (non-sensitive info of course) that has prep us for this? It is like the army has to prepare a SIR unit just for FIBUA so likewise Air-Navy has to prepare for terrorist and piracy attacks via unconventional means.