Royal Malaysian Navy RMN 501 Squadron flies with Leonardo AW159 Wildcat on sidelines of Defence Services Asia 2018

Photo credit: Leonardo

The Royal Malaysian Navy's Super Lynx unit, 501 Skuadron, has seen the Leonardo AW159 Wildcat helicopter up close as part of the shop window presented by arms manufacturers to the Malaysian Armed Forces as the Defence Services Asia (DSA) exhibition gets underway in Kuala Lumpur (KL) from Monday (16 April'18).

European defence company, Leonardo, announced that flight demonstrations flown by AW159 Wildcats were held last week at the RMN base in Lumut, and at Leonardo's facility in Subang.

The helicopters were flown by Britain's 847 Naval Air Squadron, which has a detachment embarked aboard the French Navy's helicopter assault ship, FS Dixmude (L9015). The warship arrived at Port Klang on Friday escorted by the French Navy frigate, FS Surcouf (F711), for a four-day port visit. The warships, which have some 500 personnel aboard, are part of the French Navy's five-month long deployment, codenamed Jeanne d'Arc, to the Middle East and Pacific Rim.

The Royal Navy's 847 Naval Air Squadron is part of the United Kingdom’s Commando Helicopter Force based at Royal Navy Air Station Yeovilton and operate the Army variant of the AW159 Wildcat. Leonardo described the British Army’s variant of the AW159 Wildcat as "almost identical to the Royal Navy variant with the only major equipment differences being the Army aircraft do not have the Seaspray 7000E series AESA radar or weapon carriers".

Malaysia is the first country to operate the Super Lynx 300. In 1999, Malaysia selected the naval helicopters (previously designated as the AgustaWestland Mk.100) as replacements for its ageing Westland Wasp helicopters. Five Super Lynx helicopters were delivered to Malaysia in 2003, with  the ceremonial handover for the last bird held on 19 July 2004 on the sidelines of the Farnborough Airshow. This followed integration trials in Britain with the Sea Skua anti-ship missile system.

Activities leading up to DSA 2018 are due to kick off today, with a press conference chaired by Chief of Defence Force, General Tan Sri Raja Mohamed Affandi bin Raja Mohamed Noor, and Ministry of Defence Secretary General, Dato’ Sri Abdul Rahim bin Mohamad, at the show's new venue in KL.

Photo credit: Leonardo

Tangkas Dan Berbisa

US Navy aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt pulls into Singapore for first port call since leaving the Arabian Gulf

A powerful force of United States Navy warships, centred on the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), is now in Singapore for their first port visit since leaving the Arabian Gulf.

More than 6,000 sailors, naval aviators and US Marines from the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group (TRCSG) sailed into Singapore's Changi Naval Base, on the eastern end of the tiny city-state, from Monday 2 April 2018. The carrier and her escorts recently wrapped up their commitment to Operation Inherent Resolve, which provided naval airpower for missions in the Middle East and also over Afghanistan.

The flatop is said to be headed for US Naval Base Coronado in San Diego following her Singapore stopover and is likely to make her presence felt in the South China Sea and other ports during her home-bound voyage.

Her stopover in Singapore was accompanied by a press release announcing the aircraft carrier's visit - which is not the norm for all port visits to Singapore by US Navy aircraft carriers as some hulls have come and gone with no publicity.

"It is great to be back in the U.S. 7th Fleet and have the ability to visit another port here during deployment, and we couldn't be more excited to be here," said Rear Admiral Steve Koehler, commander, Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 9, in a US Navy statement. "The U.S. and Singapore have a strong navy-to-navy relationship and we look forward to our time in port to continue to build on that connection in many ways."

Prior to coming alongside in Singapore, the TRCSG conducted a passage exercise with the Indian Navy. The ship also embarked a number of Malaysian Armed Forces personnel for a closer look at the carrier during her trip down the Malacca Strait.

The full complement of the carrier's surface escorts, comprising a cruiser and three destroyers, have since joined the flattop pierside at Changi. These include the guided-missile cruiser, USS Bunker Hill (CG-52) and the guided-missile destroyers Preble (DDG-88),  Halsey (DDG-97) and Sampson (DDG-102), grouped under Destroyer Squadron 23. Unseen at Changi but thought to be lurking in the vicinity is a nuclear-powered attack submarine that usually accompanies a carrier strike group.

The carrier has aboard warplanes and naval helicopters that form Carrier Air Wing 17. In December 2017, the carrier launched warplanes for missions in two distinct geographical areas on the same day, with some missions flown over the Middle East even as air strikes were conducted over Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel.

While on their first liberty call in months, the men and women aboard TR will play their part in naval diplomacy this evening when they host a reception in the carrier's hangar bay.

Ashore in the Lion City, the American warfighters-turned-tourists will provide a boost to the city-state in many ways.

A US Navy statement said that during the port visit, sailors and Marines will volunteer off-duty time to assist local charitable organizations and participate in community relations. Sailors will also have liberty, time to travel around the city, and cultural exchanges during Morale, Welfare and Recreation-sponsored tours.

"U.S. 7th Fleet port calls are both rich tourism opportunities for the crew and important relationship-building opportunities with the host nations," said Capt. Carlos Sardiello, Theodore Roosevelt's commanding officer. "Sailors have an opportunity to get some well-deserved rest and enjoy the vibrant cultures as they continue deployment."

The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt dwarfs her escorts, Halsey (DDG-97) and Preble (DDG-88) at Changi Naval Base in Singapore.

Seen off the carrier's starboard bow are her escorts, the guided-missile destroyer, USS Preble (DDG-88), guided-missile cruiser, USS Bunker Hill and the guided-missile destroyer USS Samson (DDG-102).

A MH-60 Seahawk in distinctive warpaint from Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 73.

Understanding Singapore Armed Forces SAF war machines through open source information

Many interesting nuggets about Singapore's military can be found from close examination of open source literature. Such "Easter Eggs" are found in weapon brochures from defence companies or pictures taken in foreign training areas upon whose soil the Official Secrets Act cannot touch.

Even before social media entered our lives, events such as open houses and arms shows offered rich opportunities for data miners to do their stuff.

Researchers have been rewarded with tantalising glimpses of war machines that the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) placed on field trials that were never publicised. The MaK Armoured Weapons Carrier, which was tested by the SAF in the 1990s, is one example. Pictures of the heli-portable tracked vehicle found in MaK brochures from that era show assets that appear to be in SAF warpaint. Though the pictures do not single out the Lion City's armed forces, SAF cognoscenti should be able to pick out the Easter Eggs unaided.

Keen observers and SAF otakus would have learned the same from open source literature of the United Defense M9 Armoured Combat Earthmover (ACE), which emerged second in a two-horse race between the American ACE and British Combat Engineer Tractor. Tail number registrations of new SAF assets on acceptance trials overseas are another source of data. Many other examples abound.

Along with data mining comes the job of making sense of all the data. Two rules worth following when sussing out signals from the noise as as follows:

Validity: A hypothesis can be accurate but not necessarily valid. All too often, we see people jumping to conclusions, force-fitting the "facts" to fit their own hunch or hypothesis. It takes discipline and a systematic approach (key elements in the info-collection cycle such as Plan, Collect, Process, Analyse, Disseminate/Red Team Review etc) to information gathering to avoid this pitfall.

Accuracy: This essentially means one's observations must be reliable and unbiased. Not easy when we all have inherent biaises towards how we see various situations. One must also be able to discern between observations and opinions when joining the dots to find those Easter Eggs. Have fun while doing so. :-)


Note to the reader:
There's an Easter Egg in the text. Can you find it? Happy holidays everyone. :-)


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Understanding defence creep. Click here

Singapore Army restructures to stay ready, relevant and decisive

Photo: Singapore Army

Although one hardly hears about the Singapore Army's efforts to transform itself into a Third Generation fighting force nowadays, rest assured the army has not kept idle.

News that the 3rd Singapore Division attained Initial Operational Capability (IOC) status last August as the Singapore Army's first 3G Combined Arms Division points to more exciting developments on the transformation front.

Given that FOC follows IOC, one naturally assumes that the other army divisions - the largest organised fighting units capable of independent land warfare operations - are likely to follow suit in due course.

One might even surmise radical changes to the Singapore Army's structure and organisation might be on the cards. Such changes must be explained clearly to stakeholders so that people do not confuse any revisions to the orbat as a sign of weakness.

If and when legacy units are rebranded, defence watchers whose job it is to make sense of developments such as force structure revisions must be convinced that the Singapore Army restructured its combat units to enhance the operational readiness and lethality of its component divisions.

There is a risk that superficial analysis might prevail. For instance, defence watchers might count the number of legacy units and compare this with the new force structure and end up with the misconception that more in the past and fewer in future means less hitting power. In short, a streamlined army with less punch.

Such a train of thought could not be more erroneous or wishful.

How does one explain all this without a free coffee? It is, undoubtedly, a tricky line to thread. But let's try.

The Singapore Army's order of battle has always been a source of intense speculation. Bar-talk and armchair analysis aside, a hard look at numbers points unambiguously to the fact that the Singapore Army has more to show than many people appreciate.

The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Armour Formation is a prime example. In the 1990s, when my university mentor, Dr Tim Huxley, and I compared SAR numberplates in his attic like stamp collectors at a swap meet, one discovered that the operationally-ready National Service (i.e. reservist) SARs were numbered in the 400-series. As of 1995, the NS SARs were clustered around the low 400s.

Today, there are indications that the Armour family has grown. However, even when one strips away SARs that have been stood down (example: 452 SAR), one finds it difficult reconciling the number of NS SARs thought to be active with the number of existing armoured brigades.

This conundrum lends itself to two possibilities:
First, the SAF Armour brigades are larger than the tradition model of three battalions per brigade. Second, we have more armoured brigades in the Singapore Army.

It is interesting to speculate on the second possibility. This is because the number of battalion-strength NS SARs which are still active, when paired with the existing Singapore Armoured Brigade (SAB) thought to reside outside the orbit of divisional command, gives you enough SABs to form an armoured division.

This hypothesis is, to me at least, a "wow" moment.

So if and when legacy units are reshaped and reformed, one must factor in the possibility that the baseline comparison (i.e. how many units exist on paper) might be on the low side and that there might be other unassigned units that one must reckon with.

Singapore Army force planners who earn their pay working out such numbers have my highest respect for the work they do and I look forward to learning more in due course.

A look at the new Singapore Technologies Kinetics STK BR18 bullpup rifle

Move over M16. Here comes the BR18.

11 March 2023 update: Books Kinokuniya in Singapore has stocked Pukul Habis. Please visit its main store in Ngee Ann City or Bugis Junction, or check the Kinokuniya online store here. The title should be available via Kinokuniya Malaysia soon. Please enquire with the KL store.

 

For readers elsewhere, please check the Amazon sites that serve your location. "Look Inside" function on some sites shows sample pages.

Singapore: https://bit.ly/3XJzInH

For readers elsewhere, please check the Amazon sites that serve your location. "Look Inside" function on some sites shows sample pages.

Australia: https://amzn.to/3ViaX0i

United Kingdom: https://amzn.to/3EZ6clA Look Inside

USA: https://amzn.to/3Ui3Eo1 Look Inside. When ordering from Singapore, please click on the "Shipping to Singapore?" button. Ignore the "Temporarily out of stock" notice on the Amazon.com page.

This new Made in Singapore 5.56mm assault rifle - its name stands for Bullpup Rifle 2018 - was unveiled at this week's Singapore Airshow 2018.

Developed by Singaporean weapons maker, Singapore Technologies Kinetics (STK), the land systems arm of the Singapore Technologies Engineering group, the BR18 builds on a concept weapon called the Bullpup Multirole Combat Rifle (BMCR), which made its public debut at the February 2014 edition of the biennial airshow held in the city-state.

The prototype BMCR was then touted as "the world's shortest bullpup rifle", with the basic design adaptable for a long rifle and light machine gun variant.

After four more years of research & development and feedback from field trials, the BR18 displays several new features absent on the prototype BMCR.

Chief among these is the cocking mechanism. While the BMCR had a peculiar cocking mechanism that appeared to be a finger trap for unwary or careless firers, the BR18 has a more conventional cocking handle with a flip up/pull back action. A cocking handle is found on the right and left side of the weapon, along with firing selector and the magazine release button which are duplicated on both sides of the rifle. This makes the weapon easy to use whether you are left or right-handed, or to use STK marketing-speak, the BR18 is capable of "fully ambidextrous operations to enhance the solder's warfighting capabilities in urban operations".

The BR18 is said to be ready for full production. The weapon retains many features found on the SAR-21 5.56mm assault rifle, which is the standard infantry rifle fielded by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). These include the rifle's well-balanced design, sturdy construction and armoured butt which protects the user using composite material which is designed to absorb fragments in the event of a chamber explosion. However, the laser aiming device and 1.5x magnification factory zeroed optical sight embedded as part of the SAR-21 carrying handle are not found on the BR18.

In addition, the BR18 retains the front-facing ejection tube on the right hand side of the weapon, found on the BMCR prototype seen in February 2014. Spent cartridges are ejected forwards through this tube, thus reducing the risk of hot spent brass hitting the face of lefties. The gas regulator is found on the front of the weapon, to the left of the barrel.

The basic BR18 has an overall length of 645mm and weighs in at 2.9kg.

According to STK literature, the BR18 can be adapted as a "Marksman Rifle" and a "Machine Gun Rifle" (an unusual nomenclature). These variants extend the BR18's overall length to 785mm, with the weight of the rifle raised to 3.2kg and 4.0kg respectively.

The BR18's compact size and lightweight would be a boon to soldiers who need to deliver assault rifle firepower while fighting from a confined space. Apart from urban settings, the weapon could potentially appeal to motorised infantry or AIs.

Here's the full data sheet for the STK BR18 bullpup rifle for your reading pleasure.

Firing detail: Close up of the STK BR18 5.56mm assault rifle. Note the front facing cartridge ejection tube and EOTech holographic sight fastened to the picatinny rail as primary sight. The pair of thumb levers (which are also found on the other side of the weapon) are said to be the rifle's firing selector and locking/unlocking mechanism for the charging handle. 

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Yet another hint of Iron Dome in Singapore?

Seen at a local hobby store in Singapore: A scratch-built model of #guesswhat?

There must be good reason why a customer commissioned these scale models of what looks like missile firing units. Can't wait to see the finished product! 😏

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Largest Singapore Armed Forces SAF mobilisation may have practised wider dimension of Singapore's defence readiness drawer plans

Soaring above and beyond the morning mist that shrouded Paya Lebar Air Base, Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) C-130 Hercules 732 had a pre-dawn flight to nowhere last Friday.

Personnel from the RSAF's 122 Squadron had a particularly early start that day, with the C-130H rotating a few hours before sunrise. A take-off at that unearthly hour means that the groundcrew had to be up and about even earlier, which translates to an overnighter for some of the squadron's personnel.

Once aloft, Hercules 732 traced seemingly aimless orbits over the sleeping island.

Nothing out of the ordinary with this flight or her underwing stores of a pair of external fuel tanks (inboard) and what appeared to be air-to-air refuelling pods (outboard).

But wait: The hose-and-drogue method for topping up thirsty RSAF warplanes is no longer used. The last RSAF warplanes plumbed for this AAR method were the F-5S/T Tiger IIs, which have since been retired.

And 732 was pictured at Rockhampton in September 2015 sans AAR pods. See below.

Photo: Courtesy of Central Queensland Planespotting

With gas prices the way they are, why bother flying with added deadweight? Who's probe-equipped jets are they meant to refuel? The Malaysians?

It would be interesting to ponder what prompted that early morning sortie on Friday, which was repeated on Saturday morning.

Perhaps by sheer coincidence, these were the days on which the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) conducted its largest mobilisation exercise since 1985. Some 8,000 soldiers and 700 vehicles were involved in the exercise, with publicity accorded to the mobilisation phase that took place under the command of the 9th Singapore Division/Headquarters Infantry at the historic Selarang Camp.

The SAF does not need to activate warm bodies to test its drawer plans. It is thought that various scenarios can be played out during computerised war games, with advanced algorithms working out how various courses of action from Blue and OPFOR could be played out during complex scenarios involving land, sea and air assets.

An FTX like the one we witnessed this past weekend, however, injects much more realism to game theory. This is because the interplay of many factors ranging from weather, traffic, unit esprit and the attitudes of individual National Servicemen could ultimately impact the Mobex response rate for units assessed.

One surmises that another dimension of the exercise could have involved the C-130 flights. Such RSAF aircraft are thought to be able to fly missions other than those that involve transporting troops or cargo.

It would be interesting indeed to find out what's in those AAR pods and why Hercules 732 was configured as such, orbiting the island in elliptical tracks with all that deadweight when most of Singapore was sleeping.

Is there more than meets the eye? Yes/No/Maybe.