Singapore's artillery gunners get to hone combat skills in NZ

The Straits Times, February 6, 2007


SINGAPORE Artillery gunners have been bang on target during a live-firing exercise in New Zealand.

The Singapore Armed Forces' annual artillery exercise, Thunder Warrior, has been an opportunity for the gunners to practise complex combat skills beyond just gunnery skills, said the Ministry of Defence on Sunday.

In a demonstration put up for the defence ministers from Singapore and New Zealand, SAF troops used a camera-equipped mini unmanned aerial vehicle to monitor the targets and watch where the artillery shells landed, a move which helped Singapore Artillery gunners fire more accurately.

Mindef said weapons-locating radars, which are used in battle to pinpoint where the enemy's artillery shells and rockets are coming from, were also used in this artillery live-firing exercise.
Efforts to network the third-generation SAF battlefield sensors with the shooters - the heavy artillery guns and mortars - mark a major milestone in the way gunners have been trained in Thunder Warrior since the exercise began in 1997, said Mindef.

More than 490 SAF troops have been involved in Thunder Warrior, which began on Jan 21 and ends this Saturday in the New Zealand Defence Force's Waiouru Training Area.

On Sunday, Singapore's Second Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen, accompanied by New Zealand Defence Minister Phil Goff, watched SAF gunners in action during the live-firing manoeuvres.

Dr Ng, who is also the Manpower Minister, said: 'From what I heard from our commanders and our soldiers, they are finding great benefit in training with each other, in looking at systems, in sharing. This terrain, of course, offers us training opportunities that we can't get elsewhere, in terms of range, in terms of testing our systems.'

His counterpart, Mr Goff, was also pleased with the way the exercise unfolded. He said that New Zealand regarded Singapore as its 'closest Asian defence partner'.