Confidence in Singapore’s air power after ‘successful’ military exercise: Ng Eng Hen
An F-15SG from the RSAF takes off from Lim Chu Kang Road, which was turned into an alternate runway for Exercise Torrent. Photo: Wee Teck Hian
SINGAPORE — The success of the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s (RSAF) latest alternate runway exercise gives Singapore “a lot of confidence” that it can protect its skies “under all conditions”, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said on Sunday (Nov 13).
This year’s Exercise Torrent, the seventh since 1986 — but the first since 2008 — saw a 2.5km stretch of Lim Chu Kang Road morph once again into a runway for fighter aircraft.
Given its small size, Singapore must always protect its airspace, Dr Ng told reporters after observing the event, and the exercise showed the RSAF’s ability to “convert a highway into an airstrip” and launch fighter aircraft from a public road.
In the lineup this year were 12 warplanes, comprising the F-15SG — participating for the first time — the F-16C/D and the F-16D+.
Revving up with an ear-piercing roar, the jets thundered down Lim Chu Kang Road and the nearby Tengah Air Base in simultaneous launch-and-recovery operations.
The task of transforming the road began on Thursday. The 48-hour process involved removing a series of road fixtures, including more than 150 lamp posts.
Nearly 1,000 RSAF servicemen — about half of them operationally ready national servicemen — are involved in the exercise, which ends on Monday.
Dr Ng, when asked whether the exercise was particularly pertinent given the present security threats, said it was a regular event for the RSAF and was not done for “any particular reason”.
“But we want to keep that capability warm ... (and) it was a very quick, very successful exercise,” he said of the 15-minute demonstration.
Calling it a “big effort”, Member of Parliament Vikram Nair, who chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee for Defence, said the event was also significant because it involved engaging civilians, including farmers, in the vicinity of the exercise grounds.
“Being operationally ready involves having the entire population ready, so all the key stakeholders have to be engaged, and I think this exercise shows that we’re fully capable of doing that,” he said.
Aside from Dr Ng, Second Defence Minister Ong Ye Kung and Senior Minister of State (Defence) Mohamad Maliki Osman were among those who observed Sunday’s exercise.
