Comments on Singapore Armed Forces SAF training incident at Exercise Wallaby 2024

 

Some initial thoughts on the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) training incident at Exercise Wallaby in Queensland which injured 12 servicemen:

1. This is the first known incident involving the Singapore-made Hunter armoured fighting vehicle taking part in Exercise Wallaby in Queensland, Australia

2. Hunters have special seats and body restraints designed to minimise injury to passengers in the event of landmine blasts or should the vehicle overturn.

3. Furthermore, Singapore Army standard procedure is thought to call for Hunter passengers to be belted up and for helmets or bump caps to be worn when onboard the vehicle.

4. Unlike the earlier generation of Bionix infantry fighting vehicles or M-113 Ultra armoured personnel carriers, armoured infantry on Hunters typically fight closed hatch. This means the passengers remain inside the vehicle with all hatches closed, and are typically belted up as mentioned above.

5. Closed hatch operations rely on the Hunter's all-round surveillance system, which comprises a suite of cameras placed around the vehicle that can see in daylight or at night.

6. However, the hot and dry conditions in Queensland as Australia approaches summer is known to give rise to brown-out situations when vehicles moving in column kick up large amounts of dust.

7. It will be instructive to know how fast the Hunters were moving, relative to one another prior to and at the point of contact.

8. This incident, presumably in clear weather (i.e. no rain) albeit dusty conditions, with no external combat stress factors such as enemy fire, will produce learning moments for the concept of operations (CONOPS) for closed hatch AFV operations and standard procedures for the embarkation of armoured infantry aboard Hunter AFVs.

The extent to which the build up, if any, of dust or other particulate matter could have affected the effectiveness of the Hunter camera suite or periscopes for crew situational awareness is not to be underestimated. This is a point which the inquiry would uncover.

9. I have full confidence in MINDEF and SAF leadership in handling this matter.

The SAF is a learning organisation. I am confident the right lessons will be gleaned from this incident and wish the injured servicemen a speedy recovery.

10. For full disclosure, I attended Exercise Wallaby as a journalist years ago during the trial of the then-new Bionix 2 IFVs and was embedded with 42 SAR. Great unit.

File photo of a Hunter armoured fighting vehicle. This is NOT the same vehicle involved in the incident mentioned.

For more:

https://www.mindef.gov.sg/news-and-events/latest-releases/24sep24_nr2