Apache fleet to move to Singapore by 2006

Apache fleet to move to Singapore by 2006
Airmen being trained to fly the attack helicopters in Arizona

By Goh Chin Lian

SINGAPORE’S fleet of the world’s most lethal and sophisticated attack helicopters will be brought home from the United States in two years’ time.

With better helicopters, you don’t need a tank to fight a tank, said Rear-Admiral(NS) Teo, in an Apache. — MINDEF
The Apaches are now in the Arizona desert, where Singapore airmen are being trained to fly them.

Singapore is buying 20 in all for reportedly about US$1.2 billion (S$2 billion).

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Training has been going on for 2 1/2 years, said Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean on Sunday, when he visited the men and their machines at the Silverbell Army Heliport in Marana, Arizona, where the fleet is based.

His comments were released here yesterday by the Defence Ministry.

He added that the trained airforce personnel had attained ‘operationally ready’ status.

He said the Apache would move the Singapore Armed Forces closer to its long-term goal of becoming a ‘third-generation’ fighting force that could respond more swiftly and efficiently.

The helicopter can ‘out-see, out-manoeuvre and out-shoot enemy tanks’ with its radar system, inter-helicopter data links and guided missiles, he said.

‘You don’t really need a tank to fight a tank anymore. You can fight it asymmetrically with a helicopter.’

Yesterday, Mindef said the Apache’s radar could pick out more than 128 targets, rate the 16 most dangerous and relay the information instantly to other Apaches through a data link.

Its missiles can also receive targeting information from the radar of another Apache, for coordinated attacks.

This means pilots no longer have to radio each other about enemy positions and pass along firing instructions, a procedure that takes time and is more prone to human error.

The technology which allows data exchange between the helicopters could one day extend to the command post, ground forces and even foot soldiers carrying communication devices connected to a common network, Mindef said.

This technology to integrate forces in the field has emerged only in the last few years.

The United States, Israel and Britain and, to a lesser extent, Australia, are looking into it, said Dr Bernard Loo, an associate professor at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies.

But armed forces had to have a more flexible command and control structure to make the technology work, he said.

The foot soldier who spots an enemy target should be able to call an air strike immediately, for instance, rather than have to relay the information up the chains of command. By the time he reaches the commander, the target may have moved.

Dr Loo believes that though not cheap, the technology will be worth it.

He said: ‘The ability to know and see everything in the battlefield has always been the Holy Grail of military commanders.’