Targeted Training

Brig. Gen. Frederick Choo/Singapore Army

Asmilitary professionals, I believe training is a topic that is dear to all of our hearts. Each and every one of us has gone through the paces of training as Soldiers, conducted training as we rose through the ranks and now, at this level, perhaps review training systems and frameworks for our forces. So, I shall not be delving into the science of training, the pedagogy. Instead, I thought I would share Singapore’s experience in overcoming our geographical constraints to train our Army and how we have partnered with many of your armies to train and learn together and build mutual trust and interoperability.

Let me begin by sharing the Singapore context. Training is the lifeblood of our Army. As we like to say, “Train hard, fight easy.” As a conscript force, we enlist all men above 18 years every quarter and train them into capable fighting units within two years. After the completion of their conscription service, all national servicemen or our reserves return every year for 10 years, each time for up to two weeks, and this is mandated by law. All in, we train over 100,000 Soldiers each year across all levels of training — basic, vocational, unit-based, maneuver, as well as live fire. Unlike many other countries, however, we are unable to conduct all this training on home soil because space is a binding constraint for us. This is why in the Singapore Army we think hard about how to conduct training using creative solutions. Singapore’s land mass is 725 square kilometers … [and] is home to around 6 million individuals. We devote just over 10% of our scarce land resource to defense. This is a significant investment as the space could otherwise be utilized for competing demands, such as a new university or new industrial hub.

These constraints have driven the Singapore Army to anchor our training strategy in three ways. First, maximizing our local training space. Second, seeking support for overseas training and, third, doubling down on simulation technology. 

First, to maximize our local training space, we are currently building SAFTI City in Singapore. SAFTI stands for Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute. It is a state-of-the-art urban operations facility that will replicate the extent of dense urbanization which will characterize our future battlefield. Phase one of this project will be ready by 2025. At 88 hectares, which is the size of about 100 football fields, SAFTI City consists of two sectors. The first sector replicates Singapore’s industrial area to enable training for island defense operations. Main features include ferry terminals, warehouses and petrochemical factories. The second sector comprises 69 buildings to replicate a typical city center landscape and streetscape. The main features in this sector will include an integrated transport hub with a mockup of a subway with multiple surface exits, interconnected high-rise buildings, dense building clusters and multiple ingress/egress road networks.

RANGE OF OPTIONS

SAFTI City is not just an infrastructure project. We seek to leverage data analytics and advanced battlefield instrumentation to make training and learning smarter, effective and efficient. We will also develop and adopt smart technologies to create a realistic and challenging environment for training. Smart, interactive targetry systems that respond and shift positions in accordance with the fire that will be put on them would aid in creating training realism rather than using existing dummy targets. The facility will also be fully equipped with sensors and videos for near real-time tracking and monitoring of individuals. The data collected would then be analyzed to improve learning via evidence-based feedback loops. In addition, as the Singapore Army moves toward greater motorization, three instrumented battle circuits, or IBACs, will be set up, with the first scheduled for completion in 2023. These are our training playgrounds, so to speak, optimizing the least amount of space to generate the key effects and scenarios that will make a small unit battle-ready in as short a time as possible, and enable our Soldiers to train with greater realism with the use of technologies such as 3D mobile targets, battlefield simulation and interactive avatars. These IBACs are strategically located to complement the concurrent usage of SAFTI City such that it enables training continuity from the conventional terrain to the urban terrain.

Another example of effective and efficient use of training time is through the development of the multi-mission range complex (MMRC), which was completed more than 10 years ago. The MMRC is sited on what used to be a single 100-meter, outdoor live-firing range. Now it is a three-story, indoor live-firing range that provides a total of seven ranges with a mix of both single- and double-story multitier ranges. These ranges are also able to provide conditions from 50 meters to 1 kilometer, made possible by the advanced targetry system developed indigenously. By providing our Army with realistic day, night and all-weather marksmanship training practices, our training efficiency has increased greatly. As an example, about 900 Soldiers are now able to complete the marksmanship test package in a day, as compared to two or three days in outdoor ranges previously. This effectively replaces seven physical outdoor ranges.

The second thrust of our strategy is about seeking support for overseas training. Utilizing overseas training land is a critical aspect of our training space strategy as you can see from the limited size of Singapore. There is essential training overseas that we cannot possibly undertake in Singapore because of size constraints: for example, air-land integrated training in the United States and Australia, armor live-firing training in Germany and India, and live firing of long-range weapons systems in Thailand and New Zealand. Today, we conduct unilateral training in seven countries and across 10 time zones under the kind auspices of the respective host nations. And we take the chance also to conduct combined arms maneuver training where possible and live-firing exercises in almost all of the countries where we train. In short, do what we are unable to do back home. Recognizing that the combined arms and joint training is necessary for our Army’s warfighting capability, we are currently planning to expand the Shoalwater Bay Training Area in Queensland, Australia, thanks to the support of Lt. Gen. Rick Burr [chief of the Australian Army] and the Australian government. This would afford us three times the amount of training access and a training area that’s 10 times the size of Singapore.

Singapore is deeply appreciative to our partners for allowing the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) access to overseas training areas, both unilaterally and bilaterally. For example, Exercise Forging Sabre in the U.S. allows us to conduct a larger-scale and realistic joint-level exercise, and Exercise Trident allows us to conduct a tri-service exercise with the Australian Army. These exercises expand our experiences as a small Army and ensure that we are able to build interoperability with our partners.

SIMULATING SUCCESS

The third thrust is on simulation technology. Simulation technology and training is strategic for the Singapore Army. It allows us to do things better by covering our spectrum of training needs at lower cost, time and land demands, meeting our increased training requirements more sustainably. At the same time, simulation also enables us to exercise a larger range of cross-service and combined arms operational scenarios safely and progressively. It also enables experimentation of new gray-zone and multidomain warfighting concepts. Simulators also provide a hedge against uncertainty, making our training system more resilient to any global disruptions, as we have most recently experienced with the COVID pandemic. The next bound of warfighting concepts will be underpinned by integrating multidomain assets and effects, and the more we are able to do so in peacetime training the better we can execute when the time calls for it. The previous mantra of simulation training by type and conducting task-based live training thereafter will not be good enough for the next bound. To do so, we will develop a common simulation environment to provide a harmonized battlespace with a simulation architecture and data standards predefined to ensure interoperability across existing and new training systems. What this means, potentially, is one combat team training on a virtual simulator in one part of Singapore and one motorized company training in SAFTI City when it’s completed, all connected with an air-land, live firing taking place in Shoalwater Bay, Australia, in real-time and all monitored at the exercise control center in Singapore.

This is the vision, and we’re working toward it. But what makes simulation truly revolutionary in the next bound is the advent of data, big data and cloud technologies. For the first time, we are now able to collect, organize and exploit the rich training data on an industrial scale and in near real-time to provide detailed assessments and personalized feedback, and to track learning progress over time. The analogy I have is that every Soldier of the future will have a digital career scorecard — much like every sports person will have in a sports team — that details his or her marksmanship results and vocational competencies from the time of their enlistment to the time they retire. This will transform the way we train and engage our Soldiers. Think of providing differentiated training approaches and customizable training for our Soldiers and units. Individuals can now receive quantitative insights on their strength and weakness, and this evidence-based approach can also be used by our trainers to design targeted training. Besides, there is also a human element to this. Our Soldiers today are more accustomed to digital and personalized training and learning from their education system and their workplace outside of the military, as well as commercial and gaming applications. Our next generation of simulators will have to incorporate gamified and intuitive design to engage our Soldiers and provide training motivation for skill mastery. This will allow us to train smarter and motivate a new generation of Soldiers by improving their training experience.

EMPOWERING TRANSFORMATION

In summary, we envisage that the usage of simulations will empower and transform the way our Army trains in the next generation. With more effective, engaging and efficient training, we will be well positioned to raise, train and sustain our citizen Army with limited training time and within Singapore’s land constraints. Unilateral training is but one component of our overall portfolio. Opportunities to train with other armies are equally, if not more, important. It allows armies to learn from one another, foster friendships, build mutual trust and enhance our interoperability. It was such exercises in the early years of the Singapore Army that allowed us to learn, benchmark and professionalize early and quickly. The SAF was able to strengthen our relations with regional partners through bilateral and multilateral exercises, such as Tiger Balm with the U.S. Army, Semangat Bersatu with the Malaysian Army, Maju Bersama with the Royal Brunei Land Forces and exercise Kocha Singa with the Royal Thai Army, to name a few. I have through the course of my career been involved in these training serials and have gained much professionally and, of course, at the personal level, too.

These interactions underscore the close and long-standing bilateral defense ties, and we look forward to a full resumption of these training opportunities. And, soon enough, we look forward to training together in the SAFTI City of the future or in the IBACs. With a common simulation environment, there is great potential for all of us to rethink the exercise design for future bilateral and multilateral exercises. Training innovation will continue to be a strategic priority for the Singapore Army in land-scarce Singapore. We will not cease our efforts to maximize, intensify and reimagine the design of our training facilities. This will be complemented with our overseas training strategy, as well as our simulation master plan. We will also continue to participate in bilateral and multilateral training exercises and leverage these platforms to strengthen mutual trust and enhance interoperability. I hope we will continue to learn and work with all of you in this journey ahead.  

Brig. Gen. Frederick Choo, chief of staff of the Singapore Army, delivered this keynote address at the Land Forces Pacific Symposium & Exposition in Honolulu, Hawaii, in May 2022. It has been edited to fit FORUM’s format.